Remnants Fixer
by Civilscroll
Summary: What can one expect from life? certainly not this, a new life, in a new world, with new friends. I suppose making my way through this fictional world I love will be fun! Although I'm a bit worried about what the future will bring, will I be able to fix these problems? Art provided by TheFalseVyper, look for her on twitch! (on hiatus)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Humble Beginnings

You never really know what to expect in life. One day you could be riding with your best friend driving around your hometown after you've been gone a few years. Reminiscing about this and that and which anime character could beat whichever other one. When somewhere else an oil truck driver is getting into his truck to deliver, not realizing that his brakes had been cut by some punks who think oil is destroying the environment. And an intersection, where the towns favored restaurant is and two friends are leaving with their goods. They get the go ahead by a green light and the truck driver gets a red. But he can't stop. And a collision occurs with two kids dying and the truck driver jumping out before the crash. You never really know what to expect in life.

POV Change

'Where am I? The last thing I remember is the intersection!' "What the hell is this place," I cry out. Around me there is nothing but a swirling void with no sound or sights. "What happened?!"

 **Death.**

'What?' "Who said that?"

 **That is not something you need to know.**

"please I just want to know what happened. Is Logan ok?"

 **The one you know as Logan is at his own Crossroads. What you should be concerned with is yourself.**

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!? Where am I!?"

 **As I said, a Crossroads. A decision is to be made. Where will you go from here? The afterlife? Or would you like a new life, to make new decisions and make new stories?**

"Are you God? Oh Shit, Am I dead!?"

 **A decision needs to be made.**

"Fuck, fuck! Okay uhh new life?"

 **Very well, you will be placed into a world in danger; you will have the choice, become strong and assist those who are weak. Become who you are meant to be.**

"Is anything gonna change about me? Will I still be… me?"

 **Yes. You will retain your memories and your personality though your body will undergo changes. Know this; if you die once more, there are no third chances. Farewell mortal.**

And with that a blue portal seemed to appear in front of me, swirling around and providing the only source of light and change in this abyss. "Well… nothing ventured. Onward to adventure?"

And I stepped in.

Scene change

"Hurry up Asher we need to get home before dark!"

"Huh?" looking around me all I see is what seems to be a forest area with lots of snow everywhere, and there seems to be some kid pulling me along a path. 'What the hell, I went through the portal didn't I? is this my new life?' "Asher?"

"Did you forget your name little bro?" the kid then points to himself, "I'm your older brother Samson Royt! The strongest, toughest, and most humble kid in our village, ha ha ha!" from what I could see he had some long hair going to his shoulders in braids, he was about five feet tall and seemed to be a teenager. 'Wait a minute, older brother?!'

"Samson?" 'What the hell? An older brother, a village? WHERE THE HELL AM I?' I looked at myself, and from what I could see I was short, way too short, around three feet tall, I was used to being six feet. I felt…tiny.

"you feelin' alright Asher?" he gave me a thumbs up, "You know if you have a problem you can come to your big bro right?" he then jumped on a tree stump nearby, "As the strongest guy in the village it's my responsibility as an older brother to keep you safe!" he pulled me into a one sided hug with his arm over my shoulder "so what's the deal?"

"Uh… just thinking about what to do today I suppose?" 'Shit, what the hell is going on? I have an older brother apparently and he's the strongest in our village?' "Hey Samson, how much longer till we get home?"

"Hey, that won't do! Call me Bro, little man! And I'd say it'll be another five or ten minutes to get back home. You in a hurry or something? You're a bit young to have a girlfriend!"

'Holy shit how young am I?' "S-shut up! I was just curious!" 'Well it's not like I haven't dealt with older siblings before.'

"Hey hey, we're here! Hage village!" Samson pointed towards a wall surrounding the village in question, which seemed to be mostly rural and agricultural. The walls that I could see seemed to be thrown together from logs. The gate itself standing around ten to fifteen feet high. "Let's hurry back to mom and dad at the shop! I'm sure they're waiting on us! Come on Asher!"

"Wait up!" 'Damn these tiny legs! I can barely keep up!' we headed towards what looked to be some kind of weapons store. Axes, shields, swords, and even some guns were in the windows. Samson opened up the door.

"Hey we're back! I have that ore you guys wanted!" and with that what looked to be a monster of a stepped out of a door in the back and inside I could hear clanging and a roaring fire. He was tall well over six and a half feet, and you could tell he worked a forge. He was covered in soot with muscles bulging and a beard covering his face. Not as long as a wizard or something like that more like you might see on a lumberjack. He was wearing an apron over a white shirt

"Ah good you're back! Hand over the ore then and take your brother home, he looks a bit worn out. Any troubles while you were out?"

"Nope! And even if something showed up im more than a match for any kind of Grimm!"

'WHAT DID HE SAY'

"someday you're humility will be your downfall Samson. You're just like your old man! Ha ha ha!"

'WE JUST GONNA SKIP BY THAT GRIMM THING?' ok, so Grimm, main antagonist of Rwby. Fuck me; I'M IN GOD DAMNED RWBY. Ok ok chill out, fuck. Fuck me. Fuck this. FUCK.

"You ok Asher? Come on I'll take you home." Samson picked me up as I was having my panic attack. Mt breathing was erratic and I could barely move. "Dad he looks pretty bad! I'm gonna take him to the doctor!"

My 'dad' nodded his head. "Right! I'll tell your mother!" he ran into the back and I could hear him yelling. But I was a little more focused on WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE? I could feel us moving around the town with Samson carrying me in a run towards what I assumed was the doctor. Shit, fuck, GOD DAMNIT! How the hell am I here? Rwby is fictional! FAKE. It doesn't exist! Fuck! Oh god and apparently I have a family here too! SHIT!

"Doc, you gotta help him! I think he's having a panic attack or something!" Well at least my new brother seemed to care about me. "Please!" scratch that. He REALLY cares.

"Let me have a look at him…." And with that I lost consciousness.

Scene change

I woke up in what felt like a soft bed with sheets over me. it looked like I was in a kids room except it was pretty close to barren. I looked over to my right and I could see Samson sitting in a chair his head hung low as if he was sleeping. I sat up in the bed and I guess the rustling woke him up. His head shot up and he ran over to my side. "Hey little bro! you feeling ok?" as he was saying this he put his hand on my forehead to check for fever.

"Uh, I'm feeling fine," A lie, "I guess I just caught something," Another lie. "Where… are we?"

"Oh no! Don't tell me you don't remember! We're in your room at our house! Dad and mom are in bed but I couldn't sleep knowing my little bro was fighting for his life!" he then gave me another side hug, with a little less force than before. "You're gonna be my partner when we're both huntsmen aren't you? I've gotta take care of you until then!" Huntsman? I mean I suppose? What else would I do? "Until then though lets help out mom and dad with the business ok?"

You know what. All my life I wanted to be somewhere else, be SOMEONE else. This is my chance to be that someone. "Hey bro,"

"Yeah?"

"you promise we're gonna be huntsmen?

"of course bro! I'd never lie to you!"

Maybe this is a good thing. I've always wanted an older brother.

Scene change 8 years later

"Happy thirteenth birthday Asher!"

My brother and family decided to surprise me for my birthday! I could see Samson coming out from the back of the shop with a cake in his hands. I would be heading to combat school soon so this would be one of the last days here in Hage village. It's been a good 8 years. My bro has been teaching me fighting, he uses a sword and shield because its "heroic", and I've learned my own set of skills. I like to think I'm ahead of other kids my age but I don't wanna be cocky. I found out in these years that my bro likes to brag, but not without cause. He actually is the strongest kid in our village. Although he's not really a kid now. He was now around twenty three years old and a certified huntsman. Mom and dad were super proud of him, not to say I wasn't either. We haven't seen many grimm while I've been here, not nearly as many as I was worried about anyway. While I've lived here I trained with my bro before he went to atlas, then when he went I trained with my mom and dad in smithing. It was actually surprisingly fun! I learned how to craft weapons and armor and make guns for others. It was also a good way to get close to them. I think dad really like that I wanted to learn more about smithing.

For my weapons I decided to make a warhammer and shield combo. When I was back on earth I was a pretty big fan of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer fantasy, so I based my weapons off of the warpriests in that universe. They just always seemed like really cool weapons to me. I just need to find some method of attacking from range with them. I decided to use the shield as well because one, I didn't want to copy Nora that's lame, and two, my brother is pretty cool. I wanted to honor him in some way with my weapons so I decided to use a shield like him.

"Thanks! But, I thought you were on a mission Samson?"

"nah, I asked off for this whole week just to spend time with you little bro!" with that he flashed me a thumbs up after placing down the cake on our table. "It's been a while since I've seen you! You've gotten pretty big little man!" well he is right about that. I'm pretty close to five and a half feet tall at just thirteen. And working in the forge with my mom and dad has beefed me up quite a bit not to mention my training. "Another few years and we'll be clearing out grimm together! So keep up with your training little bro!" It's actually pretty nice having an older brother. In all honesty it's like having a-

"GRIMM!"

Oh… no not that. How many? Samson immediately put on his game face which was honestly a little concerning. "Mom, dad, take Asher to the house and get yourselves armed. I'll take care of the defenses." And with that he was gone. Dad grabbed me and my mother and we ran through the village. Everyone was running around us rushing to their homes trying to hide from the incoming grimm. Samson will keep them all safe though. He's the strongest person I've ever seen!

"We're here! Quick get inside!" dad shouted above the chaos, we finally got to our house and mom and dad took me to the safe area in our basement. We dug it out in case an attack ever came. Still though I want to help Samson, plus when's the next time I'll see a huntsman in combat? And so I decided not to go into our basement. Mom and dad won't notice for a while hopefully. I'll go upstairs and grab my weapons then head out to help. I made my weapons not too long ago when I had some free time, although I haven't made any adjustments or added a shifting feature yet.

Getting my weapons and getting out was the easy part, now to find Samson. He could be anywhere in the- "GET OUT OF MY VILLAGE!" ah there he is. Time to show off my skills!

"Bro, let me help you!" he seems to be fighting a pack of beowolves with no visible alpha. Too easy. "Raggghh!" my warhammer smashed into the back of a beowolf facing my brother, easily breaking any kind of a spine the creature had, I guess my time in the forge built up my muscles more than I thought. But I forgot about pack mentality. My brother, the experienced huntsman was able to hold them at bay because of his skill and experience, and I just presented them with weaker prey. The pack of beowolves, now down a member and taken to close to seven, started to charge towards me. My brother saw this and ran in front to block with his shield. The first one ran into his heater shield and he retaliated with an upward slash from his sword. Opening up the beowolf completely.

"Damn it Asher, what are you doing here?! I told you guys to stay safe, and you come out to fight!" well I can't really say I'm surprised.

"I'm here to help bro! I'm strong and I can help you fight!" I show him my Warhammer to accentuate my next point, this'll convince him! "I've been training with my weapons every day since I made them, so I know how to fight. Let me help!" At this the severe look on his face seemed to drop and was replaced with a small smile.

"You're too much like me, aren't you." He then gave me another one of his thumbs up. "stick close to me little bro. I'll keep you safe." Nice! Looks like he's cool with it after all! "but…" huh? "after this I'm gonna kick your ass." Oh that's a scary face.

"Y-you don't have to be so scary bro…" the beowolves were still coming at us, my bro and I made our own little wall with our shields, and then we charged, my hammer denting their skulls while my brother would cut them down when I knock them over. We made a great team, and we took out the entire pack with little effort. Both of our training showing off our skills.

Once the last of the beowolves went down things went a bit easier. Samson and I made our way through the rest of the village checking what other areas needed to be cleared, but it seemed that the town guards took care of the rest. So we went to the town center to regroup with the rest of the guards and other villagers that were fighting. Samson went to talk to the captain while I decided to sit down. I waspretty tired after that fight. Is this what being a huntsman is like all the time?

POV change

Samson was still talking to the guard captain when Asher went to sit down. Unknown to all the humans and faunus there more grimm were waiting in the forest outside the walls, they were simply waiting for the time to strike. And with the two that killed a pack distracted now was that time.

 **BOOM**

 **BOOM**

The villagers then began to look around hearing a loud noise like a drum, that reverberated throughout their bodies and shaking the earth they stood on.

"What the hell?"

"D'you hear that?"

"No way, more grimm?"

 **WHAM**

" **SHIT!"**

The walls were blasted down by grimm that looked like more armored up versions of the beowolves. They were the alphas that weren't with their packs earlier, but they were also accompanied with a king taijutu, its twin heads swing around through the air, with tongues tasting the air trying to find prey. And find prey they did, a boy sitting on a stump who hasn't turned around yet, the monster snake rushed towards him eagerto get a bite of him when out of nowhere a shield slammed into its white head.

"Run Asher! Get to the house!" Samson started to jump around the two headed snake trying to distract it with small cuts around its body. The boy whom he just saved seemed shocked by the appearance of these grimm and couldn't move. One of the heads decided to take this opportunity and shot forward. "NO!" and samson pushed the boy out of the way, inadvertently getting caught by the head.

"Asher… run…."

And he was gone.

POV change

"Bro…" he can't be. There's no way…. He's too strong to be killed by a grimm like that! I refuse to believe it! "Samson… you can't be…." The snake turned its heads towards me, their original target. The alpha beowolves were running wild taking down the guards and villagers that were left. But they didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the **fucking snake** in front of me. This **fucking monster** had just taken away my brother, and I **will not stand for that.**

"You took my brother, you dirty two headed snake. He was my best friend and you took him." I looked at the head which took my brother and raised my warhammer with one hand the other hand had my shield at my side. It felt like my body was burning, sweat was pouring down my face and I could barely breathe. Everything was really bright. I looked at my hands and there I saw it. fire surrounding my weapon coming off my hand. I dropped my hammer and the fire receded to my arm. I looked at the snake in the eyes and the last thing I remember of that day is **"burn"**

And everything turned red.

Scene change 4 years later

Things changed after that day. I unlocked my semblance, one which I'm pretty proud of. But I lost my brother, my best friend and inspiration. My parents and I grieved and the village supported us, saying it was no one's fault except the grimm. But I knew better. I caused his death. The taijutu was going after me and he took the hit for me, which lead to his death. My family and I couldn't stand living there after that. The place where he grew up and died, it was no longer home. We moved to the city of vale. It was reported as one of the safest places to live and my parents just wanted peace to run their business.

Granted I knew what would happen. Or at least what was supposed to happen. The fall of beacon, team RWBY shattering, their reunions. Maybe fate has it to where these events can't be avoided. If so, I'll at least be there to fix things. I'm a weapons smith, so while I may not be a fixer, I do create problem solvers. And that's what I'll do. I'll solve the problems that rear their ugly heads.

So here I stand ready to board the airships to beacon. I'm gonna make my bro proud and hold up his legacy as a huntsman. And I'll tear down and destroy every grimm, villain, or evil witch in my way.

 **A/N well, im sure anyone who saw this because of my other story are thinking, "What the hell? It's been months and you don't even have your second chapter up yet? DIE" and I'm inclined to agree with you. I hate those kinds of authors, but I understand their positions now. Things have been tough with end of year stuff. School was kicking my ass, I got into a car crash, and I've been having some troubles at home. So I'm really sorry about my other story. this one is because my friend is with me and I'm feeling pretty inspire, so I've got him here to kick me in the ass if I fall behind. My other story is already in the works with its second chapter I just need to put the finishing touches. But I want to hear from you guys. Should I keep on with this story, focus on my other one or wait and see where the chips fall for both? Just leave me a review or hell even PM me with your suggestions.**

 **BTW if any of you can guess who I based Samson off of in terms of personality, kudos!**

 **I like to think this is one of my better examples of my writing and I'm hoping it will only improve. For those worried about a mary-sue or whatnot, don't. by no means is this character overpowered. I detest those kinds of stories with a passion and would never think to make a self insert like that. it's just not realistic and I can't handle it.**

 **So again, Read and Review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: New Friends

The airships are a lot bigger than I thought they'd be. The whole thing is massive with one giant common area, and no-one looks like those black silhouettes from the show, though I wasn't really expecting them to. I was one of the first people on the ship I was assigned to, I was excited for going to Beacon. This is the thing I'd been working toward ever since I showed up on this world. I had trained till I couldn't move, practiced using my semblance till I pushed every limit I had to ten, and I had learned everything I could concerning history, math, science, and every subject in school. Honestly, I worked harder here than I did back on earth! But I had to, otherwise I would have been chewed up and spit out by this world, quite literally in some cases. But I'm here now, all my work has paid off and I'm ready to kick things into gear!

"BLARRGHH" a blonde teenage boy just threw up, gee wonder who that is…

"YUCK! Getitoffgetitoff!" And now a certain blonde teenage girl is flipping out. This is gonna be rough. Well I guess I should make sure Jaune has more than one friend before the end of the day. I walk over to where he is leaning over a railing in the airship.

"Need a hand buddy?" I say as I walk over to him. He weakly looks at me and nods his head in what I can only assume is gratitude, his face is a bit too green to make out any other emotion than sickness. I start patting him on the back and give him some water "Here, this'll get the taste out of your mouth, couple drops of lemon might help as well but I've got nothing." He grabs the bottle from my hand and starts to chug, "Don't chug it!"

"BLARRRRGGHHH" too late.

I give out a sigh, I kinda forgot how Jaune is like in the beginning. "you really shouldn't chug or eat anything fast when you're throwing up man, just take small sips."

He looks at me with another, I'm assuming, thankful face. "Thanks, I'm Jaune, what's your name?"

"My names Asher, but that's a pain in the ass, so just call me Ash." Gotta catch em all! ... Ugh that was gross.

Jaune gives me a smile and holds his hand out for a shake. "well it's a pleasure to meet'ya Ash!"

I smile at his friendly attitude and give him a handshake, pretty good grip for a guy with barely any muscle.

By this point the airship is beginning to dock and the other students are headed towards the exit, through the crowd I can see Yang and Ruby making their way in the front. Jaune and I stick together as we exit the ship and we look around where we've landed.

Beacon is beautiful. That might be a bit of an understatement, but the show just doesn't do it justice. The headmasters tower has a giant clock face and you can see it ticking down the time. There is a little plaza area with grass and flowers growing around the sides in a circular fashion. Past the plaza seems to be the main staging area of our orientation, which leads me to my next question. How the hell did Jaune and Ruby get lost? It's a straight shot to where we need to go, so either their idiots, which is plausible, or they get turned around in the whole Weiss confusion.

 **BLAM!**

Speak of the devil!

"Agh!" Jaune that scream was a little too high pitch for you.

"You complete dolt!" shouts a slightly, dare I say it, snobby voice. I turn to Jaune and give him a pat on the back and give him a smile.

"Let's go meet some new friends!"

 **Xx POV Change xX**

Ruby didn't want to explode today, but that just seemed to be how the day was going. She just wanted to learn how to be a hero at Beacon! She even got a special invite from Ozpin! But one thing led to another and now she was getting yelled at by a stranger! Ooohhh. This is all Yang's fault! She left her alone and now she's in trouble because of it.

"Are you even listening!?" The pale white-haired girl in front of her shouted into her face.

"kinda hard not to, we could hear you all the way over at the dock." Oh no, another stranger….

This one was a boy, tall though. Around 6"2', he looked like he was around yang's age, he carried a bag on his back filled with a bunch of things she couldn't see, but on his belt, he had what looked like a warhammer with studs on the hammer end and a spike on the back. He was wearing a plain black t-shirt with gray pants and hiking boots. On his shirt was a symbol of a flaming anvil. He was walking towards them with long, but slow and controlled strides. He looked like he was used to combat. His face looked friendly with a smile plastered wide and his eyes matched his smile, their blue iris's twinkling with what looked like amusement. His hair was wild if a bit shaggy, and brown, almost a dirty blonde. Behind him was… VOMIT BOY?!

"I'm sure if we talk about it we can figure out what the problem is right? No need to call people names or anything."

"I wasn't talking to you! This is none of your business so take your scraggly looking friend and leave!"

Uh oh, his entire look just changed. Where there was a look of kind understanding, now there was unflinching resolve.

"Listen here, heiress. I don't care who you are, in my opinion no-one should. Its not about where you're from its about where you're going. So, I'll say this once. Do not, insult, my friends. Or we will have problems. It seems to me that this little altercation, though a bit explosive, is both of your faults. Her,"

AH! He's pointing at her!

"for not seeing where she's going."

At this the heiress took on a superior look and a haughty smile. "Thank you!"

"I'm not done. It's also your fault for not properly sealing your dust or seeing that there was someone in your way. You could have told her to watch out or warned her, but you just kept going. So, here's my verdict. I'm heading to the welcoming ceremony, your welcome to join me, but I will not tolerate bickering over something that could be solved with a simple apology." And then he started walking away.

Another girl came over as well and handed the pale heiress her dust vial and walked away as well, under her arm was what looked like a book. Her hair had a bow in it and she was wearing black and white clothes.

 **Xx POV Change xX**

Jesus! Was I too tough? Maybe I should have toned it down. I look back when I'm a good distance away and Weiss and Ruby both looked shell shocked. And then Weiss turns to Ruby, gives her a snooty head turn and walks away with her things. Jaune and Ruby are talking, and it looks like Jaune is pointing my direction. And they start heading towards me! Ok, ok, be cool, your just another student here to learn how to be a huntsman.

"Hey Ash!" Jaune runs up to my side, with him is a certain silver-eyed huntress-in-training.

I turn to Ruby, "Decided to tag along then?"

"hehe… yeah I figured you had it right in that whole argument. I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose!"

Aw man, Jaune don't-

"Names Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!"

Sigh.

"Do they really?" Ruby you really shouldn't encourage him.

"They will! Well, I-I hope they will. My mom always says that... Never mind."

There's a lull in the conversation after that. Then Ruby runs ahead and pulls out crescent rose and says "Well, I've got this!"

Oh, oh my. That's a very large weapon. It looks like it's perfectly balanced for her size with a bit of weight distributed to help her blast herself across the field with its rounds. The edge of the blade is sharp, extremely so, with enough of an edge to cut through any armor or shields that someone might have, at least without aura.

"Whoa! Is that a scythe?" Jaune seems to be in awe of crescent rose, with good reason. What a monster of a weapon.

"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle!"

"uh, a what?

She cocks the chamber to her weapon and gives a cocky smile. "It's also a gun."

"That is a fascinating weapon… may I look it over?" I ask, hopefully she wont mind. I just want to look at it a little bit, maybe look over some improvements to made….

"ummm maybe later?" damnit! It's such a cool weapon.

"Well this is one of my weapons" and with that I pull out the Wrath of Terra. It's a warhammer styled after the war hammers of Warhammer fantasy. Its modeled to be a one hander while I use my shield, in respect to my brother. To honor his style with the sword and shield. I've trained extensively with all my weapons, but I'm most proficient with this.

Ruby starts to look it over in my hand and seems to be giving it her own appraisal, "oooh, a warhammer huh, what can it do?"

I smile and say "It hits things. Hard." I jump back a few feet, using my aura to amplify the amount of strength I put into it, then I push a button by my thumb on the handle and the spike on the back-end shifts into a hook. I then shoot it out to grab Jaune by his armor and the hook grabs the front of his breastplate and yanks him off his feet, straight to me.

Jaune gives another of his girly shrieks as he is streaking through the air towards meat speeds I'm sure he's not comfortable with. Before I completely scare him off, I retract the hook and grab him out of the air in a bear hug, it's not that I like giving out hugs, it's just the best way to cushion him from that much of a deceleration.

"Please, don't do that again."

I laugh and dust off Jaunes shirt as I put him back on the ground. "Sorry about that man, I just thought you guys would get a better idea of its capabilities like that."

Ruby suddenly appears near Jaune and seems to be… vibrating? Oh no, she's just bouncing so fast I can barely see it. Jesus, how fast is she?

"That was so cool! You just jumped back and then whoosh! You yanked Jaune with a hook! It looked like you used it like a whip, with the actual hammer as the handle! You could probably even use that to move yourself around!"

I laugh and press the button again, the chain hook now swirling around the area where it was loose on the ground until it retracts into Wrath of Terra. The hook then shifts back into a spike.

"You're gonna lose it when you see my other stuff. And no, I'm not showing them right now, that would take away the surprise wouldn't it?"

Ruby and Jaune are amazed, rightly so, by my weapon.

"Where did you get it made?" Ruby asks, probably wanting to know of another weapon shop to bum around in.

"I made it in my family's shop, we own a weapons store in downtown vale, I designed and forged it all on my own."

"You made your weapon?" Jaune asks, that's right his is a hand me down.

"yep, I'm a licensed weapon smith, 2nd class. I help my mom and dad work the forge while one of them deals with customers."

"wait a minute… Vulcan Forge works?" uh oh.

"You… know the shop?"

Ruby starts to viciously nod her head, "Of course! Its known as one of the best forges in Vale! I go there every now and then to see the stock!" she then gets a look of amazement on her face, "Are you the one who makes all the weapons in there?!"

"Well I don't make all of them, a lot of them sure but not all…" I can already tell this is gonna be rough. "Uhh, shouldn't we be getting to the ceremony?" Now run you fool!

I grab Jaune and tuck him under my shoulder and start to sprint towards the ceremony with Ruby hot on our tail. Then she overtakes us and starts to race us there! Well, let no one say I like losing. I put Jaune in my arm and get ready to throw him.

"Jaune, hold onto your ass!"

"Wha- agghhhh!"

And now Jaune is sailing through the air, he's lighter than I thought he would be… then again, he hasn't done a whole lot of training or anything yet so he's just a skinny guy.

"You can beat her jaune! Believe!"

"Whyyyyyyyyyy?!"

 **WHAM**

Ooohh, too hard?

"Jaune! Are you ok?" I run over to where he slammed into the door, but he beat Ruby!

"ooowww." Jaune is on the ground in a fetal position. I pick him up and look him over, it looks like most of the damage was superficial, he should be fine. But what do I know? I'm no medical expert.

"Hurry up guys! The ceremony is starting!" Ruby runs past us into the auditorium dragging Jaune, and me, with her.

"Ruby! Over here I saved you a spot!" ah that must be Yang.

Ruby turns toward us and gives a sheepish smile "Oh! Hey, I-I gotta go! I'll see you after the ceremony!"

Jaune, still shell shocked from me throwing him, offers a feeble resistance, "Wait!" and she's gone. Damn she's fast. "Oh great, now where am I gonna find a nice quirky girl to talk to?"

"Dude, you're hurting my feelings, I'm right here if you want to talk to someone."

"Oh! Sorry Ash, but you know what I mean." Ouch. Way to lessen the blow Jaune.

"-Like tall, blonde, and _scraggly_ over there!"

"Huh?" No jaune don't give her the satisfaction.

"I'll… keep this brief," Oh shit Ozpin is starting! "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction."

"ouch."

"Quiet Ash! He's still talking."

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

"Damn, good speech." I say to Jaune.

"yeah… not sure what to say after that."

After that the students start to file out towards the ballroom, getting their things ready for staying the night in there.

"I'm a natural blonde you know!" Jaune. Stop.

Time skip

"Jaune. What. The hell. Are you wearing?" I swear he's gonna make me have an aneurism.

"They're my favorite pajamas!" Jaune, why are you like this?

"Jaune you look like a child. Why don't you wear something like what I have?"

"Like your any better!"

How dare he? I worked hard to buy these pajamas! I was wearing pajama pants styled with my symbol in a pattern, and I was wearing a simple black shirt.

"How dare you!"

"What! I like Pumpkin Pete so I'm sticking with this!"

"You know what! Fine!"

"Don't you realize people are trying to sleep!" oh look its RWBY already having their first fight. Or well, Weiss fighting them.

They argue for a little while longer until Blake blows out her candle and everyone goes back to their areas. Jaune and I settle down to sleep, our bags pretty close to one another as we are the only friends besides Ruby we have here.

But now there's a problem.

I need to pee.

I leave the ball room headed to where I think the restrooms are and hope I'm not breaking any rules. I make it to the restrooms and get inside and take care of business. And right before I leave I get grabbed.

"Ghk!" someone has their hand over my mouth! Chloroform? Does that even exist here? Nope, it's just a hand, no cloth or anything. Smells terrible though.

"Keep quiet. I'm going to take my hand off your mouth, then you're going to tell me your name. Your REAL name." Oh shit, what's going on here?

"Mmphmm!"

"I said quiet! I know you aren't from Remnant! You are going to tell me your name. Now!" and his hand is off my mouth.

"Bleh, dude! Why does hand smell like hot dogs!?"

"Shut up! What, is, your name?!"

"Asher Royt…."

"Your earth name fuckface!"

How the fuck? "It's Nathan!"

At this his grip slackens, surprise? Does he know me?

"Of all the luck. Shit."

I get out of his grip and turn towards my would-be attacker, he looks vaguely familiar, like a picture in an old album.

"You've got no clue who I am huh?" he's tall, almost as tall as me. He stands around 6"0' with locks of black hair hanging in front of his eyes. He's wearing what looks like a blue duster with a black sash across a blue shirt and brown shoes. "It's no surprise I guess, we both look different than we did on earth." He then gives me a smile "I guess we both got a bit of an upgrade huh?"

I'm getting sick of this sherlock Holmes shit. "Listen man, tell me who you are and how you know me, or we are gonna have problems."

He chuckles, then laughs, and then it looks like he's starting to break down. Is this guy sane? I'm a little worried for my safety, not that I wasn't before.

"Come on man, I thought we were best friends?" Oh no, oh shit, Fuck!

"Logan?"

He then smiles and holds his arms out wide "In the flesh!"

Oh my god. Oh my god! I run over and grab him in a bear hug and squeeze for all I'm worth. "I thought I was the only one here! How long have you been here?"

"twelve years, you?"

"About the same." Damn, was this because of that thing? Whatever it was, god, or was it God? I don't know but things just got a little more complicated.

"How have you been man?"

"the best I can I suppose. You? Where did you grow up? I'm guessing Vacuo with the whole Son Hak look."

"You noticed huh? Yeah, I grew up in a caravan, my name is now Lee Luse **(pronounced lu sa)** , you?"

"Outskirts of Vale, the nation not the town. We lived in a frontier town. Moved to the big city when I was fourteen."

"Quite a pickle we've got ourselves in now huh?" he looks at me with a small sad smile on his face "I can only assume you made the same deal I did."

"Yeah with that weird voice in the void? It was kinda scary. But I'm glad you're here as well, I don't know how much of a difference I could have made on my own."

"Well you know what this means right?" he starts to smile even wider, "We should end up on the same team! At least if everything stays canon." Oh, he's right. I'm not even sure what my plan was there, hope I get a good team? He then pats my shoulder, "Listen man, I'm glad you're here, but we might get in more trouble if we are gone any longer. I'll talk to you more in the morning, but if I don't find you, good hunting out there." And then he starts to head back to the ballroom.

I follow his example and head back, thinking all the way. If we ended up here ae there any others? Other earth people who ended up stranded on this world? Do they even know about the story or that this place was the brainchild of some guys in Texas? Scary thoughts.

I make it back to my bag and slide in. and get ready for the hell that will be tomorrow. But I think things will be easier now, or at least I hope so. But what do I know? At least I have another friend to count on.

 **Hooo boy. It's been a while huh? Not nearly as long as it's been for my other story, but quite a while none the less. I think now that I've moved into my dorm and I have more free time I'll be able to crank out these chapters much faster. I want to thank GamehunterMC for the review and the helpful tips on grammar, hopefully I fixed a lot of the mistakes here. I plan on going all the way with this story, you would have to rip it out of my cold dead hands otherwise. And no those are not real names, I decided privacy was better than a true insert. So, they're based off me and a friend. Once again, please feel free to review or PM and if you don't like the story, tell me what I can do better. Also, I'm taking OC's either for passing or recurring, it's up to you guys, either leave a review or PM me with your OC a basic background, their abilities and weaponry and personality. I do need them for plans I have so don't be afraid to go in depth.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A discovery

Jaune woke up a bit groggily, tired from a long day of meeting people, learning about Beacon, and… not being motion sick…. He looked over to his side and saw that Ash was already gone. Probably getting ready for the initiation today. He rolled up his sleeping bag and got everything in order, he then ate breakfast in solitude as he still had no idea where Ash was. Then started to make his way towards the locker rooms where they would be getting ready. When he got there though he found out something terrible. He didn't know where his locker was!

"Ridiculous! There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday! I would've remembered having to count that high! Why does this have to happen today?" he continued to make his way to where he was _positive_ he and Ash had put their things. And there he was! "Oh, thank goodness! Ash!" It looked like Asher now had different clothes for a combat situation, he still had his black shirt and grey pants, but now he had on hiking boots with metal plating covering them. On his chest he had a stylized breastplate with his symbol on it, and metal bracers and armguards, with armor covering his legs as well. Ash turned his head to look at Jaune and smiled, he then pointed to the locker next to his with a knowing look.

"Get lost?" Jaune then gives a sheepish look and laughs nervously.

"Yeah, I guess I forgot where our stuff was…." Asher then banged his hand against Jaunes locker and popped it open letting Jaune get to his weapon and armor.

'Hehe, thanks Ash."

"No problem man, you worried?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm just not sure what to expect." At this Asher stood up and put his hand on Jaunes shoulder, Flashbacks of being thrown ran through Jaunes mind.

"You'll do fine, I believe you'll be better than me someday." Hold on what? Better than Asher? But he's a huntsman, trained and tried and he didn't have to fake his way into Beacon. He thinks Jaune could be better than him?

"You really think that?"

Asher pats his shoulder and smiles, "Absolutely, and never doubt it." And then he walked off towards the cliff.

Wow, Asher thinks that he can be a good huntsman? Well, better not let him down!

"Great!" oh! Looks like a certain _Snow Angel_ is talking to… some other girl? No clue who she is though. Confidence Jaune!

"You know what else is great? Me. Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you."

Time Skip

All of the first-year students were now standing on the silver tiles as they had been directed, Jaune and Ash were standing next to each other with Ruby on the other side of Jaune.

Ozpin is standing on a platform facing all the students, "For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Mrs. Goodwitch then steps forward, "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of "teams." Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

Jaune could hear ruby next to him suddenly groan in displeasure.

Ozpin then continues where Mrs. Goodwitch left off, "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So, it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

More groaning from Ruby.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Jaune swore he could hear glass shattering and Ash chuckling, and Ruby screaming out to the cliffs, "Whaaaat?!"

Ozpin continues, "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."

Jaune suddenly grows very nervous, did he say die?

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

Jaune raises his hand and- is Asher still chuckling? "Yeah, um, sir?"

"Good! Now, take your positions."

Everyone gets into their ready position, with their various weapons at the ready and excited faces.

"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question." Weiss shoots off into the forest but Jaune misses it "So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something? "

Ozpin looks indifferent to Jaune's question, "No. You will be falling."

More students shoot off into the sky as Jaune is still trying to ask questions, "Oh, uh, I see... So, like, did you hand out parachutes for us?"

OK now Asher is just straight up laughing at him! What's his deal?

"Ash! Why are you laughing!?"

Asher then points past him to where Ruby is, Jaune turns to look and ruby gives a smile before… Being launched into the sky!

"Oh no…."

"Should be fun yeah? Good luck Jaune! Don't forget your landing strategy!"

"But what exactly is a landing strategyYYY!" and he's gone.

Asher then turns to Ozpin, "You get a kick out of this don't you sir?" Ozpin then smirks.

"A headmaster has to have some fun with his job don't you think?"

"Sadistic old baAASSS-"

Ozpin swirls his drink and takes a sip, "We'll have to fix that mouth of yours… Dragon."

 **Xx POV Change xX**

Holy Shit! I've never been skydiving but I'm gonna guess it's a lot like this! Time to show off a bit! I activate my semblance and fire starts to cover my body. I send all the flames coating me towards my feet and start to fly around like iron man.

A few years ago, I discovered that I could control my flames like a fire bender from avatar, or a pyromancer, I also found that its easier to control what I make if I say it out loud, I decided to make a bunch of "Spells" or something like that. I'm under no delusions that its magic, because it takes chunks of my aura to use my fire. But with the constant practice I've been doing with it, I've improved my control, and the amount of aura I have. So now it takes less, and I have more aura to draw from.

As I'm flying I see an explosion of fire, must be Ruby and Weiss. Should I go down there to make things easier? They do end up ok in the show, but I don't know if me getting involved will really help all that much. Nah, I'm not gonna chance it, they'll be fine.

I'm getting close to the relic site, so I'll just drop now. I activate the hook on my hammer and whip it towards the tallest tree I can see. The hook sinks into the bark and I press the button again, this time it pulls me towards the tree extremely fast, but right before I hit it I retract the hook back to my hammer and set it back to a spike. Then as I'm passing the tree I stab the hook into the tree's trunk and slide down the tree towards the ground.

Once I'm on the ground I run a quick inspection of my equipment, I still have my hammer in good shape, my shield looks good, and my back up plan is safe. My backup plan is a lever action Winchester with a modified chamber, allowing me to use the lever for longshots, and to look cool, while also able to ignore the lever with the flip of a switch and go full auto, I call it The Duke.

Right then, time to get moving, I start heading in the direction I'm fairly sure the relics are at. It takes me a while, and oddly enough I don't encounter any Grimm. I don't see anybody else here, so I must be early, but then somebody falls out of a tree on the other side of the clearing, Lee!

"Lee! When did you get here?" I walk over to him and help him up off the ground.

"I got here just now, but… I lost my footing in the tree…." He looks sheepish and turns around to pick up his weapon that fell with him, it looks like a guan dao with some sort of shifting but its impossible to tell what into.

"Damn, nice weapon. What's it called?"

"I call her Warriors Honor." He starts to spin her around him and generating wind with his speed, ending with the blade leveled at me with the wind blowing my hair back.

I put my hair back the way I had it and give him a thumbs up "Cool! Now let's go get an artifact, I'm guessing we're partners now?"

He and I start to make our way over to the ruins, he looks over to me as we walk and nods, "Looks like it, I'm not too bothered about it though." As we look at all the "relics" we aren't sure what to choose, as we don't want to mess with canon. But we can't exactly talk about it with all of Ozpins cameras he has up, "Whoa, what about that one?" Lee nudges my shoulder and points, it looks like a piece from an entirely different set of chess. Oddly enough its also a queen piece. While the others are black or gold this one is the color of steel.

"Well, that works." I say as I grab it. I stuff it into a pouch on the side of my pants. We walk back out into the clearing and get ready to head back, but as we are about to leave Lee stops and asks me,

"Should we wait for the others? You know, show off a bit and establish ourselves?" I turn to him and shake my head. I whisper to him, in case Ozpin is listening. There's no such thing as paranoia when its well founded.

"It's not our story, we aren't main characters, we are side characters, barely even on the same level as team SSSN. We are only here to make sure that the worst doesn't come to pass. We can be their friends, even council them, but we won't steal their spotlight." We continue walking for a bit, I let Lee think on what I said. I came to that conclusion last night. I'll do my damnedest to prevent the worst, but its still their story.

"Well… that's kinda boring. But I see your point."

I turn back to him as we keep walking back to the cliffs, "Thanks for agreeing with me, trust me. We will change things. Maybe once we are sure of our place here we can interact more, but until we know for sure, we keep to ourselves and protect everyone we can."

Lee's face turns serious a moment and he gives me a nod of confirmation, "Right, by the way, what's your semblance? If we are going to be working together we need to know each other's capabilities." At this I smirk and turn back around.

"I call it pyromancy, I can make and control fire with my aura, although it can take a lot out of me if I use too much. I can make objects out of fire as well." At this Lee smiles and says,

"That's a lot like mine! I can make storms, like an X-man. I can make tornadoes, lightning, blizzards. Any kind of bad weather you can think of I can probably make it." Damn, that's a good one.

"How long can you make a storm?"

"As long as I want as long as I have the aura for it." Interesting.

We continued in silence, just taking in the nature surrounding them, neither of us wanting to seem too excited to see the other, lest we catch Ozpin's attention. We walked for a good while, finally reaching the exit of the forest.

Lee moves toward the cliffs and smiles, "Finally! Feels like we were walking forever!"

I smile and shake my head, "It wasn't that long, besides-"

 **BOOM**

 **Boom**

 **BOOM**

 **Boom**

The ground beneath us starts to shake, in a rhythm not unlike a drum… or footsteps.

 **BOOM**

 **Boom**

 **BOOM**

 **Boom**

It was getting louder now, which meant it was getting closer. I turn to Lee and try to get my balance. Shouting over the beating of the ground. "Get ready! Its big whatever it is!" Lee nods and pulls out his weapon. The clouds above us begin to coalesce and churn, turning a dark color and blocking out the light of the sun.

Bursting through the tree line comes a giant monster with a bone mask covering its face, the body looked like a lion, with the head shape of one to match. But above the head of the lion was another, a goat's head, braying out into the sky. It had a tail as well, but no ordinary tail, on the end of it there was a hissing snake head, with venom pouring from the mouth. The lion gave a ferocious roar, matching with the snake and goat and creating a wailing noise that reminds one of a war-horn.

I backed up a bit, taking a defensive position with Lee, preparing for the battle to come. "A chimera… I dint even know those were a thing here…." I turn to Lee and begin to lay out the plan, "We need to take out the snake first, see if you can't chop it off, I'll go for the goat." He nods and gives a feral smile, hefting his weapon over his shoulder he runs around the side of the beast.

I charge straight forward, trying to catch its attention, shouting and banging my hammer against my shield. The chimera charged towards me, the lion trying to take a bite out of me. I sidestepped the teeth and smash my hammer into its eye, trying to knock it off balance. Meanwhile, Lee charged towards the snake, trying to take it by surprise. But each head apparently has a mind of is own and the snake saw him. It sprayed venom all around it, creating a cloud of poisonous mist all around the beast, making us back away lest we breathe it in.

I put my hammer on my belt and charge my aura around me, cloaking myself in fire. I turn to where Lee is and try to shout over the thunderstorm that is now roaring above us, "Can you make a tornado?! I have a plan!" He nods his head and begins to spin his guan dao around him, the wind around us picking up. I charge as much of my aura as I feel safe doing, throwing fire into the winds around us, the winds seem to grab and hold the fire, swirling around us in a tempest of flame. The wind then begins to take shape, creating a funnel of wind and fire in front of Lee, I can see the sweat on his brow from having to put so much control into our semblance's, I pour all the flame I have left into our tornado of doom hoping that this works. Lee then throws the tornado toward the chimera, which had backed off when I had started to fling fire around us. The funnel of lame slammed into the side of the chimera, burning through it like a hot knife through milk. All the heads screeching in pain and a smell of burning flesh permeated the air, the beast began to smoke, choking out the flames and then it exploded into black mist, leaving nothing but a foul smell and its lingering echoes of pain. Lee and I fall over in exhaustion. The fight taking more out of our aura than I'm sure either of us would have wanted. The last time I used that much fire in an attack was, well… I don't like to think about it. I'm very tired, maybe a nap would help. I wont sleep for long… maybe… a few minutes….

"Asher! Come on we need to get home its getting dark!"

"Coming bro! you know you could go a bit slower, we aren't that far out from the village."

I'm walking with my brother, samson, we are heading home after a long day of pretend fighting the forces of evil, we even had our own weapons, my bro had a stick that was maybe the length of his arm, and I had one that was a as tall as me, not that tall mind you as I was still only around three to four feet tall.

"I promised to protect you, so I'm taking that seriously. It gets dangerous out here at night."

Samson has always been like this, ever since I first got here he's been very protective of me. He even promised our parents that he would always be around to protect me. He's the best brother I could have asked for honestly. We kept walking through the forest, following the path we made to get back and forth. We don't talk, we just enjoy each other's company, and the beauty of the forest around us. But it all breaks apart when we hear a twig snap, and a growl pierce through the night. Samson stopped in his tracks ahead of me and motioned me to get behind him. I moved to his side, knowing that we would be ok. Right?

Out of the dark woods stepped a beowolf, padding forward on its clawed paws, its snout covered by its mask. It sniffed the air, looking at us the whole while. Fear began to roll off me, I didn't even have an aura to protect myself. Samson stepped forward and I could see his aura around him start to churn, activating his semblance. The beowolf charged forward eager to take a bite out of what it though was easy prey. Samson jumped forward and grabbed the monster by its open jaws and flared his semblance. He then began to thrash the wolf creature around, slamming it into trees and the ground, beating it ragged with the forest around us. Once he was done with that he began to spin around, using the wolf as a counterweight, and he threw the monster out of the forest. It sailed through the air, trialing smoke and black mist the whole while.

I run up to Samson and with a smile I hug my brother, he hugs me back with a feral smile on his face, deactivating his semblance so he doesn't crush my bones. We continue through the forest, enjoying the night and glad to be alive.

I miss those days….

I wake up, not where I remember being, I'm in a bed in what seems to be an infirmary. I push the button on the side of my bed, calling a nurse in.

Someone does walk in, but its not a nurse, it's the goddamned wizard of Oz.

"Ah, Mr. Ryut, its good to see your awake, I worried you might miss the team formations." Oh shit, how long was I out? "As it stands, you only had a minor case of exhaustion, I assume from using so much of your aura to fight the Chimera."

"damn, must have overdone huh?"

Ozpin smirks and takes a sip of his… what even is it? Coffee, or hot chocolate? "That would seem to be the case. Your teammate noticed you had fallen unconscious and dragged you here, feeding some of his aura to you to make sure your condition did not worsen."

I sit up in the bed and move to get out, my body sore from the days events. "I'll have to thank him then, so we passed I'm guessing?"

Ozpin smiles and gestures toward the door with his cane, "Indeed you did, quite fashionably if I'm being honest. Professor Port is very excited to have you both in his class, 'shining examples of true huntsmen!' I believe he said. You now have a lot to live up to."

Damn, the whole point of heading back early was to be under the radar. Now Port has it out for us.

"but now onto what is left to be done. If you would follow me I will take us to the auditorium and you will join your teammate and be assigned your team."

I nod my head and follow behind Ozpin as he leaves through the door. We walk in silence after that and merely make our way towards the auditorium where it looks like all the other students are waiting. Ozpin gestures to me to go and join the rest of them. I walk over, looking for Lee, or Jaune, any one I can recognize really. Eventually I do find Lee, he's at the back of the line that all the first-year students are in. everyone seems to already be paired with their teammates, but it looks like Lee and I are alone. What happens then? Do we just… join a random team?

Some time passes, students are called up, and their team is given a name and a leader. Finally, it comes down to team RWBY ahead of us, then us.

"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin motions them on stage and they all stand at attention. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"

As they have their little celebration Ozpin smiles and nods over to where the rest of the teams are, then he motions us forward. "And finally: Asher Ryut, and Lee Luse. The two of you retrieved the steel queen. From now on you will be known as team AL (pronounced aluminum) led by, Asher Ryut." Oh shit, I'm the leader? Ozpin then motions us to join the other teams. "It seems this is going to be an… interesting year."

Lee pats me on the back, "Well then fearless leader, don't kill us yeah?"

"This is gonna suck."

 **Well another chapter down. These are pouring out of me now. I'd like to thank Baz'Az'Zul for the review, and yes, I do have a plot already set out. The only thing I really need is a beta reader *wink*. So yeah, expect more chapters in the coming weeks. And be ready for a few new additions. No hints though, that might take away the surprise! So, until then, read, review, and please I'm begging you send me some OC's to work with. I'm dying.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Beacon is a lot like any other school, you go to class and hope you get good grades, deal with social groups, and try to keep above the stress. And the training to fight an ancient unending evil. That too.

But you can make a lot of the same mistakes here that you do for normal schools, like over-sleeping. We didn't oversleep, but RWBY and JNPR did. Lee and I woke up around six, just getting our things in order. Lee and i had caught up on our lives the night before, just lying in our beds telling each other what happened before now.

Lee had come from Vacuo, a traveling caravan to be precise, and he and his family traveled around the continent selling their wares in towns and villages. He'd had to learn how to fought really young because of grimm and bandits. Then when he was about twelve his family made the move to the valean area, and they started to trade with villages around here. Then when he turned seventeen he left for beacon.

I told him about my past as well, at least the stuff that mattered. I told him about growing up in my village and moving here, and what I had been doing these past twelve years. After all that we decided it had been a long enough day already and hit the hay.

"Do you think we can beat the others to Ports?" I look over at Lee and smirk at his question.

I then turn to our door, "considering we have a fifteen minute head start? Yeah, I think the odds are in our favor."

We then make our way towards Professor Port's room, ready for the torture waiting inside. It takes us maybe five minutes to get there, with us going at a leisurely pace. Oddly enough the class room was empty except for us, so we decided to just take our seats close to the middle, not too far back to be considered not paying attention, but also not too close to want to look like teachers pets. We sat there for two minutes then before someone else came in through the door, a very, rotund someone else.

"Ah! The new students! Got here early to get the best seats for my class, eh boys?" Port was almost exactly as they showed him in the series. A rotund man, still tall and energetic, with a very finely groomed mustache. "Alas! What is this? You're sitting in the middle! Well I can't let my newly named proteges do such a thing, no sir! Up you come lads!" and he gestured towards the **very front** of the room. Damn, I had hoped Ozpin was kidding when he said that Port liked us. Oh well, I could never be rude to someone with Ryan Haywoods voice, what a majestic man.

"Right away sir, Come on Ash!" well at least Lee is enjoying the attention, ah well, Port isn't the worst person to have as a teacher.

"Oh Ho! Lots of energy in you young gentlemen! Would one of you like to be the volunteer for today's activity? Originally I was going to have a student volunteer for the prestigious position, but with you two strapping young lads I think one of you would make the perfect paragon of what a huntsman should strive to be!" ah shit. I can't say no to that. He might put me in the hole.

I turn to Lee and we both have the same idea. We bring our fists to our hands and begin the chant.

" **Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!"** I whip out my rock while Lee has his own. Damn, I forgot we always chose the same things. This goes on for a while, both of us getting the same as the other for the longest time until finally… I slip up.

"Ha! Rock beats paper! You lose!" shit!

"So I'm going up then?"

Lee claps me on the back as other students start to low in the classroom, "You know it brother!"

We go back to our new seats, the ones at the front, and get ready for the class. About a minute left before we start RWBY and JNPR burst through the door, panting for breath and exhausted from sprinting over here. Weiss breaks off from the rest of her team and takes her seat up front, next to Lee and I. Her team follows her to the other front row seats and take their seats for the class.

"Monsters! Deeeemons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!" And there we go, Port is in full swing now.

After Port's bad joke Ruby jolts awake, how was she already asleep? We just started for God's sake! Nobody laughs at Port's joke, poor guy.

"Uhhhh... And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses..." at this he shoots Yang wink, gross man she's like forty years younger than you. Self control Peter, please."Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!"

"Ayyyy-yep!" Who the hell said that!? Did you just get pumped up from Port? Fair enough, the guy's got a strange energy about him that just infects you.

"That is what you are training to become. But first: A story. A tale of a young, handsome man... Me! When I was a boy..." Atta boy Port, way to steer us back in.

He continues his story for a while, it's actually kinda gripping. If you read through the narcissism you can tell he's really trying to get his points across about what huntsmen are all about. But then there's the damn giggling from a certain black and red haired tiny tot.

"...Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man. 'Peter', he told me..."

Ruby continues to giggle at her little drawing she's making. I look over at Weiss and see her gripping her pencil like it's a certain someone's neck. And I thought _I_ had anger issues. Ruby shows off her rendition of 'Professor Poop' and blows a raspberry. Yang and Blake manage to stifle their giggles, and even Lee is holding back a laugh! What the hell man, it's not even that funny… heh.

Port: "Ah-heh-hem!" ah shit, lost track. "In the end, the Beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!"

Port takes a little bow, obviously proud of himself for his excellent speech. He then straightens out again to wrap up his lesson,

"The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable!"

Ruby starts to balance an apple… on her pencil… on a book. What the actual hell is this girls malfunction? Ah well, she's just a kid.

"A true Huntsman must be dependable!"

And now she's asleep again. HOW?

"A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!"

And now she's awake! And picking her nose! What kind of person has this kind of dedication to lowering standards!?

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

I raise my hand at the same time, though not nearly as fast, as Weiss and her cry of "I do sir!" Port gives out a smile, I think, that mustache is hard to read. He then points at me, what the hell did I say about staying under the radar?

"Mr. Ryut! I believe you would make an excellent candidate for today's test of skill and honor!" I can physically see the wind blow out of Weiss' sails. She really wanted to prove herself huh?

I leave the classroom to get my equipment, I only grab my armor and hammer as that's all I should need for the pig.

I take up my position opposite the cage, Lee leading the cheer for me with RBY, and JNPR, even though I only really know Jaune from that team. Oh dear, Nora is eyeing my hammer, I don't think I like that look in her eyes. Weiss on the other hand is positively _scowling_ in my direction, not sure what I did to her to deserve that, but ok I guess.

"Aaalright! Let the match…. Begin!" And with that Port chops off the latch of the cage, come on man those would be re-usable if you didn't break them. The Boarbatusk immediately charges at me, hate in its' eyes. I widen my stance to give me more control of my maneuverability and get ready to dodge the first attack. The beast charges straight at me, unwavering in its' course. I jump out of the way just as its' about to hit me, then I _SLAM_ my hammer into its' side, it flies off into the wall but doesn't seem to fazed by my attack. I hear a cheer coming from a Lee, and the rest of the people on my side.

The pig then turns around and begins to charge its' spin attack, rolling into a ball and spinning in place building up an ungodly amount of speed in the process.

"The belly!" I hear lee yell, "Remember the belly!" Well how could I forget? It's only one of the confirmed weak spots. The boar does its' spinning attack rolling high speed towards me. I blast the bottom of it with my hammer and it goes flying into the air. While its' up there I press the button on my hammer to activate the hook, and I swing my hammer towards the beast, piercing its' body with the hook. I then slam my hammer downwards bring the pig back to earth, it's' now stuck on its back and I capitalize on that. I retract the hook back into its' spike form, then I slam said spike into the underbelly of the beast, effectively gutting it. I then activate my aura and it flares up around me, fire begins to cover my hands and cover my hammer, the spike allowing my flames to flow into the Boarbatusk itself. A smell of bacon begins to fill the air as I literally cook the beast from the inside out, it begins to bloat, then finally the flesh gives way to my flames, ending in an explosion of grimm smoke, and flames. The class is dead silent for a few moments until-

"Whooo!" Lee starts to cheer again, he's a good friend.

"YEAHHH!" oh, hey Nora. Thank God she's still in her seat.

Port then steps forward a manic grin on his face, this one I can actually see through his mustache with how wide he's smiling. "Bravo! Bra-vo! It would seem I made a good choice with you today Mr. Ryut!" he then looks at the clock on the wall and returns to his normal grin, good, seeing his teeth was weird. "Well, sadly that's all the time we have for today! You are dismissed! Well done team AL! Excellent teamwork! Mr. Luse, well done on you for supporting your teammate with advice! Now remember class… _Stay Vigilant_ , and do the assigned reading!" Lee gives a self satisfied smirk and a thumbs up to Port, you know maybe this class won't be as bad as I thought, Port's a nice enough guy.

We all headed off to our next classes, though Weiss went away in a huff, followed by Ruby. Don't get involved, It all works out. But then a voice pierces my thoughts, 'But will it? You took Weiss' place, who knows what might happen…' I can't think about that, Port and Ozpin can handle it, 'But are you sure?' I have to be.

I must have hesitated too long, Lee is looking back at me with a knowing look on his face, "We can check you know, would it hurt if we just made sure?"

I shake my head, "No, we can't. If we mess up the one thing that brings them together then the whole team might be screwed, we have to trust Ozpin."

"Trust me to do what exactly?"

"JESUS FUCK!" Ozpin had popped up behind me sometime during that last sentence and heard us talking! Shit, play it off, "uh… well… you see sir… we were worried about Ruby and Weiss!"

Lee comes up next to me and nods vigorously, "Uh… yeah! We saw that Weiss was getting frustrated and we were worried that something might be wrong, but we thought it would be best left to the teachers to counsel them instead of us, with our limited life experiences!" Jesus, where did you pull that out of? Hopefully he buys it.

"Ah, I see. Yes I too have noticed the rift between the two, in fact I was on m way there now. Care to join me? I'm sure Ms. Rose and Ms. Schnee would like to hear your thoughts on the matter between them. I'm sure you know the problem already?"

I give off a nervous laugh "He he… yes headmaster, we know what's wrong…. I suppose we can come with you, if not to just reassure ruby about things."

"Excellent, follow me then boys."

We make our way towards where Ruby and Weiss are, Lee and I staying behind Ozpin the whole time so we can just follow him. He knows the place much better than we do.

"Ozpin made a mistake! And frankly, I deserve better. Even being on that oafs team would have been better." Oaf? Who's she talking about. She then turns about and storms off further into the school grounds.

Ozpin moves behind Ruby, while Lee and I wait where we are, behind a wall. "Hmm, now that didn't seem to go very well. Though who was she talking about at the end there? Another mystery to be seen I suppose."

Ruby turns toward Ozpin, nearly in tears, poor girl. "Is she right? Did you make a mistake?"

Ozpin chuckles, "That remains to be seen…."

"What do you mean?"

Ozpin walks around Ruby, Leaving us out in the open watching the whole thing go down, luckily Ruby is more focused on Ozpin. "I mean, it's only been one day. Ruby... I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet. But at this moment, I would not consider your appointment to leader to be one of them." He then leans directly in front of her"Do you? Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle, but a badge you wear constantly. If you're not always performing at your absolute best, then what reason do you give others to follow you? You've been burdened with a daunting responsibility, Ruby. I advise you take some time, to think about how you will uphold it." he then leans back again and look over to us, more specifically, me. "Wouldn't you agree, Mr. Ryut?"

At this Lee shoves me out from our hidey hole! Damn him! I'll pay him back later. I collect myself and stand up straighter,"Yes sir, I think you've made an excellent point. Leaders are the examples to their teams. And it's up to them to never lead them astray or towards a bad route. But in my opinion a leader also has to know when to put the boot down. You can have friends, but don't forget you're the one in charge. And you were put there for a reason." Ah, it doesn't seem like Ruby liked that. Ah well, it's how I feel about leadership. Maybe I should just reassure her about herself yeah? "But again, to each their own I suppose. You might honestly be a better leader than me, who knows yet? But I'm always here if you need a hand." and with that I put out my hand for a shake. I may not be the leader that Ruby is, but I can still be her friend.

Ruby smiles at this, and then shakes my hand, "Thanks Ash, it's nice to know I have a friend looking out for me."

Ah-ha! Now's my chance! I pull Lee out from behind the wall and hold him up by the back of his shirt, "two friends! Lee is also here!" Ruby then giggles at our antics as Lee and I start to scuffle with each other, Him for me holding him up like a cat, and me for him abandoning me. This then turns into full out laughter as we have each other by the throats of our shirts. We then turn to her with confused faces and realize what's going on, and we join in the laughter.

Xx time skip xX

We get back to our rooms later, Ruby thanking us for reassuring her, even though Ozpin did most of it. But hey, helping is helping I suppose. We do a bit of our reading and studying, then once we're done with that we play games! It was something that Loga- Lee… something that Lee and I used to do on earth a lot. They even have similar games here!

"Watch out for that troll!"

"Shut up, Lee! I can't fight the troll with that damn Mimic chasing me!"

…

"You aren't really gonna equip that are you? It'll bring your stats down!"

"Rule of cool, if it looks bad ass I'm gonna wear it, I'll just improve my skills to make up for it."

Yes, they have their own version of Dark Souls, called Shadow Life. It's amazing, don't judge me.

We eventually settle down for the night, when I start to get a headache from looking at a screen for so long. But then I'm lying in bed for hours, my headache only getting worse.

And along with my headache are cramps, all along my body. My legs, my arms, even my torso. It feels like growing pains but worse.

" **Change."**

Excuse me?

" **The Change Always Hurts."**

What the hell?

 **A/N: Well! Two weeks isn't bad right? Right? Anyway, I realised I never did this before in the other chapters so her it is. I definitely do not own RWBY, the only thing I own is this story's eventual plot change, and the characters I add. Cool! Got it done! Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has favorited this story and everyone following it! You truly have touched my stone cold heart. Another thanks to Baz' Az' Zul, for introducing me to the discord. It's really helped with my process just seeing other authors as interested in RWBY as I am! And also thanks for the one on one help. So again, Read, Review, and while I'm not desperate for them anymore, if you want to see them in passing or even recurring, send me an OC! I'll most certainly get back to you within a day and tell you what the deal with them could be! Thanks again for reading! Until next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Hearing voices in your head is never a good thing, especially if it tells you you're changing. And not the "magic of puberty" change, I went through that already, and twice is not fun. No this was telling me I was changing _into_ something. And frankly? That's terrifying. But that wasn't my biggest problem. My biggest problem was that we were entering into a few months of mystery. Neither Lee, nor I, knew what was going to happen, if anything. So naturally, we decided to generally dick around for the next month or so, until Jaunedice.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea…."

"Oh, come on Ash! It'll be fun! Besides, how else are we gonna make friends around here?"

"Maybe we don't piss off one of the bullies of the school? Under the radar remember? _Under!_ "

"Ah, you worry too much. 'Sides what'll he do? We can kick his ass if an Ursa can."

"Cockiness will be your undoing one day." Lee shot me a grin and pulled me behind a corner, we were waiting for Cardin Winchester and his team to come walking down the hallway, and Lee had a very suspicious box in his hands.. "And what happens if he decides to return the favor hmm?" Lee's smile only grows wider,

"We break his fucking legs!"

"Now you're just having too much fun... alright then! Let it not be said that your leader left you to Winchester's good graces!" He pats me on the back,

"That's the spirit! It'll be like messing with Will and Lukas back home!" at this my face falls, I haven't thought about them for a while. We were all thick as thieves back home, a regular fearsome foursome of trivia nerds, pranksters, smart-asses,and dungeons and dragons fanatics. "Ah shit, sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, lets just fuck with Winchester and get some predetermined revenge for a friend, yeah?" Lee's smile comes back and he turns back to look for Cardin,

"Right you are, and here comes the shit-head now…."

Winchester looks like as much of a bastard as they portrayed him in the show, a tall, muscled, kinda dull looking, bastard. He was around my height, and by around I mean taller of course, and he was currently in his uniform, possibly walking back to his room with his cronies after a rough day of bullying faunus, the weak, and generally anyone he could get his stinking paws on. He was talking to one of his teammates, Dove I think his name was.

"And then he started crying! What a wimp! All I did was ask if his mother was paid well for making him!"

Dove laughed at Cardin's joke, "Ha! That was a good one Cardin!" the others with them, who actually gives a rat's ass about their names, laughed as well. I feel a lot less guilty about this now.

Lee steps out from behind the wall, box in hand. "Hey shit-for-brains!"

Cardin and his troupe stop in their tracks, their leader stepping forward in a manner what I'm sure is meant to be intimidating, "You talking to me?"

Lee then grins wide, "You answered didn't you? I've got a gift for ya'" he then holds out the box.

Cardin, despite the insult, moves forward for the box, greed filling his eyes. And with Cardin moving forward Lee threw the box at him, with the lid coming off mid flight. The box and its contents shattered on cardin, covering him in honey and feathers.

I start to laugh along with Lee, stepping out from behind the wall, "Ha! Less of a cardinal and more of a chicken now! The next time you mess with a faunus or anyone else, remember us. We aren't as easy to pick on as someone who won't fight back."

Cardin growled beneath his breath, and moved forward, fists clenched and ready for a fight, his small group of toadies following after him.

Suddenly we hear a light cough behind us, a very familiar cough, "Now, now mister Winchester, fighting is not allowed outside of the arena. We wouldn't want to have a detention now would we?" Lee and I turn around, but we had already guessed who it was from the voice, and where there's a witch, there's usually a wizard. Ms. Goodwitch had just finished reprimanding CRDL for almost coming to blows with us, when she turned her stone cold gaze on on Lee and I, "And you two, don't go starting trouble where there is none. Or you'll be joining Mr. Winchester in detention."

Lee grins sheepishly, while I, a little embarrassed, nod my head. "Of course ma'am, won't happen again. Right Lee?"

Lee then smirks my direction, "Of course! We're upstanding citizens! I wouldn't dream of it!"

Goodwitch seems to be appeased by that, but I don't think she believes us. Ozpin on the other hand moves forward with that small smile that never seems to leave his face, "And that is done, very well. Off to your class then, boys, I believe you have sparring class next."

"Right'o Oz! Let's get hustlin Ash!"

"I do wish you wouldn't encourage them, that's the third time this week Lee has been threatened with detention, thankfully this is Asher's first warning."

Glynda was strict woman, especially when it came to discipline, she just wished Ozpin would take things more seriously concerning the new teams.

"They are children Glynda, children have quarrels and don't always get along. Sometimes it's better to just let them sort it out and decide who they will interact with." finishing his sentence Ozpin took another sip from his mug. "Besides, I quite like the two. They remind me of some old friends."

Glynda had a sad look on her face, and decided to walk to the arena. She knew exactly who Ozpin was talking about, one of them had died only 17 years ago.

 **You are wasting time with pranks, when training should be centerfold in your thoughts.**

'Ah, fuck off voice, do you even have a name? Or do I just call you _voice_ for the rest of my life?'

 **You will know in time.**

I never thought I'd call a voice in my head a dick but there it is. I've had to listen to him, her, fuck it, _it_ for the past three days. It's annoying as all hell and nothing I do can make it go away. I've tried loud music to drown it out, but it just gets louder. I tried meditation, try to clear my head and the voice with it, but it just laughed at me. My most recent try, was banging my head against the wall, a brick wall. That one was hard to explain to Lee. as of right now, I was arguing with the voice while walking with Lee to the arena. I hadn't told Lee about the voice, I know I should, but I'm worried about it. Not to mention what this could mean for everything.

 **You are wise not to tell him.**

Ohhh. now I really want to tell him, if not just to spite the voice.

 **Hmph. It would seem I chose well then.**

Fucker.

"You alright man?" We had made it to the schools arena while I had been debating with the voice, Lee stopped me before the door, with a worried look on his face. I gave him a smirk and laughed,

"Me? Right as rain. I'm just thinking about how we'll wipe the floor with Winchester and his lackey's when they get here!" Lee then laughs along, still looking worried.

"Alright man, let's go kick some ass then."

We walk into the auditorium/ training arena, we entered the seat side. In our class was all the other first years, including RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL. We took our seats next to JNPR, as I was already friends with jaune, and through him Pyrrha. And oddly enough Lee, Nora, and Ren made friends with each other pretty quickly, and thus they became my friends as well. We didn't talk much to RWBY, excluding the talk we had with Ruby herself not too long ago, we hadn't talked to them at all. Not to say we didn't want to, we were just worried about screwing something up, well, I was worried. Lee still had his Lezzais Faire attitude toward the whole thing. I get the feeling he just wanted to show off to them.

"Welcome to your sparring class, I am Professor Goodwitch. Here you will be learning how to properly train with your fellow huntsmen, and huntresses, to become stronger than you are now. This will be the first steps you take to becoming defenders of humanity." Ah, there's the Good Witch, she had walked onto a podium in the middle of the arena, and gave her intro, "here you will spar against one another, training for the Vytal festival, and to help yourselves grow as huntsmen." beat the crap out of each other and get stronger is my basic understanding of it, I can get behind that. "I will call two of you into the arena, and you will spar according to tournament rules. The first of you to either be knocked out of the arena, or down to ten percent of your aura, will be considered out, and the other person will have won the sparring session." makes sense, everything sounds about the same as in the show. "Now, for the first match up we have," and at this the screen behind her lit up with faces, and began to spin, showing all of the students in the class, finally stopping on one, "Cerulean Nightwood, and," the other half of the board stopped, " Dove Bronzewing".

The sparring continued for a while, Students fought each other with varying styles and skills, none really eye catching as of yet. Lee was chomping at the bit, wanting to fight someone and show off his skills. Now that I think about it, I don't think he was anything like this back on earth, he was much more relaxed and lazy. I suppose Remnant has changed both of us.

"Now for the last spar of the day," the board began to spin on both sides again, stopping on a very familiar face. "Lee Luse-"

"YES! FINALLY!" Lee jumped down the bleachers and ran to the locker room, hurrying to get his equipment.

"Ahem, Lee Luse and," the board stopped on the other side, and- aw crap. "Asher Ryut. It would seem as though your opponent is already getting ready, so go ahead and get your gear." fuck.

I silently walked over to the locker area, I looked up into the bleachers to look for my friends, Nora and Jaune were giving me thumbs up, a manic grin to go with it in Nora's case, Ren was giving me a silent nod with a smile, and Pyrrha was mouthing something, my lip readings always been terrible so she's either saying 'Good luck' or 'don't suck'. I don't _think_ she would say the second one, but anything's possible.

I kept walking, into the locker room now, and got all of my gear ready. My warhammer I had polished last night, along with my shield, everything I had that was metal was now looking the best it ever had. If I can't take pride in what I've made then I don't deserve it. Lee was already outside by the time I had gotten in, he had taken the door into the arena.

I walked into the arena, the crowd of students in the stands cheering for Lee and I. Speaking of Lee he just looked over here, and it seems he wasn't expecting me to be the one fighting him.

"Hey Ash! Ready to give em' a show then?" he began to spin his guan dao around him, creating a small whirlwind of dust from the floor of the arena, ending with a grand flourish with the blade facing towards me, blowing all the wind, and dust with it, into my face.

In response I simply raise my shield and hammer, ready to defend,"Let's give them something to talk about!" a wild grin beginning to split across my face.

We look up to Goodwitch near the board, and watch it count down.

 **5**

 **4**

 **3**

 **2**

 **1**

"Begin!"

 **AN: alrighty, this is going pretty good I think. I want to get this chapter out so I can focus on the fight and what's coming in the next chapter. I have notes detailing where the plot of this story is going, so that's handled, and I've got a fantastic artist making a cover for this first part of the story. That's right! First part! This should be a two parter, may be three depending on the actual length of the series. And I'll have you know that we won't be clinging to canon forever. At a certain point there will be a divergence. So until next time, Read, Review, and PM me if you have any request or ideas!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Begin!"

And we were off, Lee rushed at me swing his weapon around him to my right side where my hammer was. I quickly roll right and bring my shield about to block the attack. Lee uses the recoil from my shield to spin around to my other side, not giving me any time to counter. I swat away the weapon with my hammer, and bull rush towards Lee. the spear like weapon doing him no favors in close quarters combat. I swung my hammer around to his side, hoping to catch him between his guard. But Lee jumped back before I could hit him, using his guan dao to put some distance between us.

"Gotta be faster than that slowpoke!" Lee shouted over the sounds of our fight. The whole arena was getting darker as his semblance started to charge up, with clouds beginning to form over our heads. Well, if he's gonna use his powers, why hold back then?

"Right! I guess I just gotta turn it up then!" and with that flames started to spark along my arms, until they burst into life covering both my arms and my hammer, along with my shield, in red-hot flames. To turn up the intimidation factor a bit I decided to put on a show.

" **HRAAGGHHH"** I threw my head into the air and breathed out a long and loud fire blast, lighting up the area around me and turning up the temperature.

I think I hear cheering but that might be the miniature explosion wreaking havoc on my ears.

Lee looked at me a bit stunned, before getting an annoyed look on his face, "What happened to under the radar bud?" I gave him a feral grin and dropped my shield, switching to a two-handed grip on my hammer.

"Fuck it. Let's have fun. I wanna let loose."

Lee returned my grin with one of his own, "Finally, let's go then!"

And the battle began again with a completely different tone.

Lightning began to strike all around the arena, and my flames began to slowly creep all around my body, growing hotter all the we rushed at each other. His guan dao going in a wide arc, reaching to cut me in half. I ducked under the wild swing, running forward with my hammer in my right hand, getting ready to throw fire at Lee with my left.

I shoot my hand forward, blasting fire at his midsection, and score a hit against his aura, the flames wrapping around his shield and dropping it a bit. But as I'm focused on my small victory he brings his spear weapon crashing down on top of my head, with the wooden part. Not doing nearly as much damage as I did, but still giving my aura something to think about. As I've still been running forward the whole time I swing my hammer around into his side, throwing his whole body off to my left, and then I get ready for an overhead hit to repay him for the one he gave me. Unfortunately he jumps out of the way, my hammer **CRASHING** into the ground where he once stood, the flames charring the floor of the arena, and melting the stone that it hit. Lee uses his jump to begin a spin, building momentum into his swing, and then tries to bring it into my side, the blade on the haft pulling down to reveal the barrel of some kinda fire arm, giving a little more push to his spin attack.

It connects, sending me back a few feet with the force behind it, the blade chipping away a good amount of my aura. But now that my flames are as hot as they're gonna get this fight I'm ready to unleash some of my more destructive attacks. I put my hammer onto the loop in my belt, and rear my hands back, charging all of my flames into this next attack.I had gotten into the habit of naming certain attacks to focus, so I shouted " **Hurricane Flame!"** at the top of my lungs, breathing even more fire into the attack, and I shot my hands forward, the fire spinning in the air in the same shape as a hurricane, spiraling towards Lee. the disk of flame, as long as a canoe and just as wide, flew faster than most people,excluding Ruby, could run. Lee however stood his ground and began to spin his weapon around him, the wind picking up in the arena. Until my attack was almost to him, then the clouds seemed to form together and make a tornado like he did for initiation. It sucked up the flames and began to spin around, creating a fire spout and lighting up the whole arena. While he was focused on that though I had been running behind the disk of fire, using it for cover. Once he had started to use his semblance I knew it was a golden opportunity. I moved to the right, using the fire spout to cover my movements, and I used a linebacker tackle to get Lee on the ground, and with his breath knocked out of him the lightning storm cleared up. I quickly grabbed his guan dao off the ground where he dropped it after I hit him,, and threw it away as far as I could. It ended up hitting the wall of the arena, clunking around on the floor. All the while Lee and I have never said a word to each other, both of us focused solely on the fight and no banter. Since Lee was on the ground I decided it wouldn't be very sportsmanlike to hit while he's down, so I went to get my hammer.

While Lee was trying to catch his breath from my tackle I looked up to see how our aura's were faring, it looked like I was in the lead, Lee was down to maybe twenty percent, I was sitting at a neat fourty. I picked up my hammer from where it lay, and slowly started to make my way back to where Lee was getting off the ground now. Both of us taking some time to recover.

"Hehe, having fun yet Lee?" I continued my slow methodical walk, putting my hammer on my shoulder to lessen the weight on my arm. Lee simply looked up from his kneeling position with a smirk,

"We're just getting started right? I've got some more left in me."

I keep walking along my self-determined path, hefting my hammer in my hands now, "You have five percent left to spare pal, I'd take it easy."

"That just means I can't let you hit me!" Lee jumps into the air and lands, running toward his weapon, that used to be behind him.

"Oh no you don't!" I began charging my semblance again, draining some of my aura to give it a bit more oof. " **Let's see you grit those teeth! Flash Fire!"** fire spreads all around the arena, with me as the focal point, more of an explosion of flame. Lee gets caught up in the blast and is launched back to the wall, both the fire and the impact dealing a good amount of damage to his aura, and with that that should be the end of it.

"Enough!" there's the witch, "Mr. Luse your aura has gone into the red, that signifies the end of the match."

Lee picks himself off the ground, holding his side where a stitch formed from all the exercise , looks like we need to work on our endurance, as I'm right there with him breathing heavily from using my semblance so much. Goodwitch steps forward still talking about how the match went, but I'm not really listening. I'm _Terrified_. I didn't want to catch attention, why the hell did I act the way I did? I'm not cocky or bloodthirsty, so why did I want to keep fighting? What the hell is wrong with me….

"-r Ryut!"

"Ah!" oh shit! Glynda's been trying to tell me something, "Yes ma'am?"

"You fought very well, but try to control the collateral damage from your semblance please."

"Yes ma'am." she turns around to talk to Lee, but I'm more focused on what the hell just happened. I barely even remember the fight.

 **You fought well, Chosen Vessel. Perhaps you will become even stronger than I had hoped.**

Shut. The. Fuck. UP. I'm not dealing with you right now Voice. Man, this can't be good. I look into the stands trying to see the reactions of the crowd. My first thought is to look for Jaune and there he is, wide eyed, and with a smile threatening to break his face, Pyrrha is next to him, with a thoughtful expression, like she's sizing me up. Nora looks absolutely lost in the want to fight me, jesus now I'm scared, Ren looks like… well Ren, he's always kinda hard to read. Rwby on the other hand, they all look shocked. I suppose Lee and I were off their radar, as we had planned, seeing as the only time we had ever really interacted with them besides the first day was in Port's. Oh dear, I don't like that look on Yang's face, or Ruby. Weiss and Blake are still unreadable (Why the hell do all these kids have such a damn good poker face?!).

"Hey man… you ok?" ah! Lee! He has a concerned look on his face, just how long was I looking into the crowd?

"Ah, shit, yeah, sorry about kinda losing it in the fight. I'm not sure what came over me."

A wide smile breaks out on his face and he pulls me into a one-armed side hug. "No worries man! That was fun, and I'm sure we looked badass!" well that's Lee I guess, never too worried about anything. Man I'm really getting used to his name now huh? Weird. "Come on, let's go back into the stands, I think there's gonna be one more fight today, then that's it."

We walk back to the locker rooms and change back into our school clothes, and head back into the stands toward our spots. We take our seats and watch the next match, Jaune looks our way every now and then, along with Yang, Nora and Ruby. Jesus this isn't gonna end well huh?

"Ash! That was so cool in your fight! How you made all that fire just 'Whoosh'!" ah Jaune you sweet summer child, never change.

"Yeah! And Lee with all the lightning and tornadoes! And the clouds inside!" oh boy, now his ego is gonna get even bigger.

"Both of you guys have such cool weapons! Could I… look at them?" This time I turn to look at the speaker, as opposed to Nora and Jaune gushing over the fight this was a real question, and one I was a little nervous about.

"Only if you let me look at Crescent Rose." ah there it is, the reluctance to part. Usually you see this in couples, but Ruby really loves that scythe.

"But my baby…."

"Sorry Rubes, no deal then."

"Ah come on Hothead! She just wants to look a little!" fuck, I really didn't want a fire nickname, they always turn out derogatory, damn you Yang.

" yeah I got it, just messing with you Ruby. You can take a look at Wrath of Terra over the weekend maybe."

"Yay!" we were all walking to our dorms, me and Lee were on the same floor but much further down the hall, and talking about the day. Of course it went almost immediately to our fight. I get the feeling Jaune really looked up to me now, as I have been pretty nice to him pretty much the moment we both got here. Really, he reminds me of my little brother back from earth. Damn he's probably in his mid thirtiesnow huh, I wonder if he's ok without me….

.

.

.

"Hey Ash, you ok?" huh? I look around and realise that everyone has gotten in front, looks like I stopped walking while I was thinking.

"Oh! Yeah I'm good, I was just thinking about somebody…."

"Oooohhh… do tell, a secret love interest?" Oh Jesus slay me now.

"No Yang, just somebody back home."

"Mhmmmmmm." what's her deal?

After that we kept walking, while I was still thinking about all the siblings I've had, my older sister and younger brother on earth, and my bro. I think all of them drove me to this, to being a huntsman. My sister was in the navy, always wanting to help out the unfortunate, and my little brother was always a fan of superheroes, he even said I was one when we were younger! And then there was my bro here. He was the most awesome person I'd ever seen.

After walking for a while we got back to RWBY and JNPR's dorms, we said our goodbyes and headed to ours as well, ready to get to bed after a long day of working.

The next day was a saturday, so we had some time off. I decided to sleep in, but Lee went to get some food and workout. I didn't wake up until almost 11, which meant that a lot of the day was gone already! Meh.

I got outta bed and dressed and headed to the cafeteria, hoping that they would have some food out by now. It took me a little while to get there though, so it was around noon when I did, and by that time, they had laid out all the food stuffs you could ask for. I quickly made a plate and headed over to a table on the side, hoping to just eat in peace. But when have _any_ of my plans gone the way I want them to? Honestly I think the universe is just out to get me at this point.

"Hey there bud. Do you mind if we sit here? Of course you don't." yeah, the universe absolutely hates me.

"Cardin, I'm not really in any kind of mood to deal with you or yourr posse, so why don't you do the actually intelligent thing and _go away_."

"Now, now, thats' no way to talk to friends. And the way I see it, with power like yours, a good friend is what you need." Ah, I see what this is. Cozy up to the new guy who actually has good control over his semblance.

"I have a friend, several actually. You wondering what it's like then?" Nice.

"Tch, smart-ass. I'm here to extend an invitation. You're strong, we're strong, if we work together we can have this place eating out of our hands. Weakling should know their place so why don't we remind them together?" is he- is he really trying to recruit me?

"Pfffttt! HAHAHAHA! Are you, HAHA,are you serious?!" this fucking idiot! Jesus I'm gonna bust a gut laughing this hard! I quickly hide my mirth at his offer and turn on my *serious face*. "I'm in a whole other class than you, you are so far beneath me I don't think you should even attempt to climb up to me. You'll hurt yourself." I stood up from where I was sitting, and while winchester was still taller than me, which is nothing to scoff at, I absolutely _TOWERED_ over him. It felt like i was looking down on some bug needing squashing. "So, here's my advice to you. _Back. Off._ "

Cardin looked stunned, good, and quickly tried to save face. "Who the hell do you think you are huh? I could take you down any day of the week, and you couldn't do anything to stop me!" _Oh really?_

 **Hmhmhm I like where this is going.**

Shut up Voice.

"Alright then, let's put your money where your mouth is. The arena is open to those who want to get some extra training in, so let's go. We can ask a teacher to ref for us. Port will do." I actually kinda like Port now, he's a cool guy and a good mentor for someone like me, so I accepted his offer of tutoring. Lee decided to 'carve his own path'. Whatever that means.

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."

I met the team CRDL at the the arena, Port following behind me after I convinced him this was a 'friendly' match.

"It does my heart good to see you students training so hard on your days off! All right let's begin, I believe it is Mr. Ryut versus Mr. Winchester correct? Very well then, take your positions."

We each stood in our corner of the arena, weapons at the ready. My hammer and shield, against Winchester's giant fuck-off mace.

 **Only use your semblance, surprise the fool with your power.**

HEY I DO- actually… you may have a good idea there voice….

"Begin!"

Cardin immediately ran forward with his mace on his shoulder, "You're going down you cocky fuck!" heh. Right.

I dropped my hammer and shield, charging my semblance in my hands and getting ready for him to enter my range. Which isn't saying much as I can throw fire wherever I can see. As he got ever closer, finally getting to the middle of the arena. I let loose.

" **HRRAGGHH! DRAGON ROAR!"** I ingest the fire I've been cooking up, lighting up the whole inside of my chest with fire, and breathe out a giant blast of flame reaching all the way to Cardin. But the fire doesn't go around him, it hits him hard and throws him all the way back to the wall. Very quickly his aura goes from topped up to nearly out, but I'm still breathing fire at him in the same continuous breath. Finally I can hear the rest of his team yelling for the match to end

B **ut I'm not done with him yet!**

Wait... this isn't right.

" **HRagh**." I stop the flow of fire from my mouth and see what happened. Winchester's aura is still barely there, but he's not hurt too bad, the rest of his team is trying to get him out of the fire, which is still roaring around him. Port is looking right at me… with an expression I can't read.

What the fuck is happening to me? First the fight with Lee now this? I- I need to leave.

And so I ran, out of the arena, through the halls, all the way to the cliff edge. And I decided to sit there. And think.

 **It is not becoming of my vessel to run.**

SHUT THE FUCK UP VOICE! I'VE HAD IT WITH YOUR STUPID FUCKING ADVICE! I ALMOST KILLED CARDIN!

 **He was weak, you merely put him in his place as he would have done to you.**

The whole point of me challenging him was to stop people like him, not become them.

 **Power is everything vessel, you would do well to learn that.**

Why do you keep saying vessel? Who are you?

 **That is not important right now, what is important is the person behind you.**

Wha-

"Mr. Ryut. are you ok?"

I turned around to see who was talking, but I already knew, the voice gave him away. Port looked back at me with concern on his face.

I turn back toward the cliff looking out into the emerald forest thinking about what to say. "I- I don't know sir. I've never been like this…. Wanting to fight and beat everyone. When I'm not fighting I feel like me, but when I am, I don't." I can hear Port walking towards me, slowly, like he's afraid he'll startle me. And then he takes a seat with me on the when I look at him I don't see the boisterous professor with an air of a twenty something. He looks old, and tired.

"My boy, many people feel as you do. In my youth I was headstrong and foolish, always wanting to prove myself. And until I got to beacon I was always like that. But things changed thanks to my partner. I confided in him, and he in me. And together we made each other stronger not just physically, but mentally. I have a feeling there is more to your story than either of us know. But I can assure you all of us teachers here at Beacon, and all of your friends, are people you can count on."

Here he sits up a little straighter with more of the fire in his eyes that we students see every day. "'There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.' that is something that was said by a great general in the war. And it holds truth. But it is up to you to beat that beast that hungers for blood. And I know you can do it."

 **Hmmm. T** _his man is very wise._

I barely even hear the voice any more.

"Professor…. Thank you." I lift my head up from where it was, staring at the ground, and look ahead, out into the wilds of the forest. "I think I needed to hear that."

 _Perhaps, you no longer need my assistance. This is an entirely different host I suppose._

Even quieter now, the voice kinda sounds familiar too.

 _Yes. Yes I think so. Dragons are after all, some of the wisest creatures. I wouldn't be surprised if this man had some dragon in him._

"Remember, asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. And I feel you may end up being one of the strongest I've seen come through here in a long time."

 _I agree. Very well. Time's have changed. And so has my host. I will change myself to suit your whims. Bearer of the flame…._

"Thank you professor."

"Any time my boy. Any time. Now, I must go and check on Mr. Winchester, you did quite a number on him, but it looks as if he will be fine."

Well, that's a relief. Port walked away, leaving me to my own thoughts.

 _Bearer, I wish to speak with you._

Well, this isn't like you voice, usually you just tell me what's on your mind.

 _I have decided that you are remarkably… different than my previous vessel. Much more, morally straight I might say. He was a bit of a gray character._

Wait, previous vessel?

 _Yes, you are the next in a line of powerful users._

What does that mean?

 _It means, that you will inherit my power, and become something greater._

Real descriptive there voice. I don't even know what you are.

 _If you have not been paying attention then I shall not tell you_.

Fine be like that.

It was close to six when I went back to our dorms. Everyone avoided me like the plague on the way there. It seems that the news of my fight against cardin already got out. I'm stopped on my way back though, it seems a certain blonde haired knight has been looking for me, along with my best friend.

"Ash! Hey man are you ok?" Jaune, you really are a good friend. Lee is just standing behind him with a friendly smile on his face. Probably understanding how tired I am and just letting Jaune do the talking.

"I'm ok. Cardin got out lot worse than I did. But I think I've calmed down now."

Jaune put his hand on my shoulder, "well, if you need to talk, you have friends." heh. Dudes been listening to Port.

"Yeah, thanks Jaune. You too Lee."

"No prob man."

I wrapped them both into a bear hug to rival a hydraulic press in power, cracking a few bones doing it.

"Ummm, Maybe show a little less appreciation? I would *hack**cough* like to walk after this hug." oops. I drop them back onto the ground and smile.

"Hehe sorry Jaune."

"No *COUGH* problem…."

It had been a while after that now. Almost two weeks. We had gotten back into our regular schedules, but I had added something new for Lee and I, team sparring. We would spar with either JNPR or RWBY sometimes other teams depending on who wanted to train, and we would use this time to make our teamwork better and make ourselves stronger. We had a lot to make up for , since we were only a two man team.

Other than that I also added a new extra-curricular activity for myself. 'Meditation and lessons with Port'. Turns out Port was pretty smart with the whole, 'battle frenzy' thing. Lee on the other hand, started doing extra lessons with Oobleck, training his speed and general knowledge. We hoped to do this for one semester and then do as much as we could with the other activity the next. Turns out there's a;so an extra class we don't see in the show, 'Semblance and aura manipulation'. So that is supposed to help students with better understanding the power they have. Lee and I have been trying to help jaune, but he keeps refusing, stating that he "needs to grow on his own". Hopefully that gets fixed with the whole Cardin thing.

Speaking of which he's been making himself scarce when I come around. Ah well, everything will work out.

I haven't talked to the voice much since then. He'll pop in every now and then, giving me advice that actually works now. It's like having my own personal guardian angel, demon, thing. I'm a little concerned about the whole 'inherit my power' thing, but I'll solve that when I get there.

Until something major comes along, I suppose I'll just keep going like I have and make sure nothing 'too bad' happens.

.

.

.

Yeah right. The universe hates my guts doesn't it?

 **A/N Heyo! so this is early huh? I decided to start writing even more than I'm used to, pumping out, oof what is this, 5,000-sh words? so yeah! feeling pretty good so far about this. and things are about to start changing in a big way for this story, and the whole story in general for RWBY! so again, Read, REview, And PM me for any suggestion you think I might wanna hear!**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Jaundice and Ire

A peek into the past

" _Bro, slow down! I'm not as fast as you!"_

" _You gotta keep up little bro! Being fast is a big part of being a Huntsman!"_

 _Asher and his older brother are running around a clearing, trees chopped down and making a training area in the woods._

" _Why be fast when I can just be strong? If I can stop them from being faster then don't I win?"_

 _Samson stops in the middle of their homemade track, Asher running into his back. He quickly turns around, looking for all the world like he could sprint another five miles. " being strong is all well and good little bro' but being shoehorned into one thing is never good. Broaden your horizons and be the best at everything you can get your paws on! If someone is expecting one thing do the other, be unpredictable! That's the path of a true huntsman of Giha village! We carry on the legacy!"_

 _._

 _._

 _._

 _Man he really likes to talk huh._

" _I get it bro. So if I'm good at everything then I can do anything?"_

 _Samson gave Asher a thumbs up, giving a wide smile as well, "That's exactly right!"_

" _Man, you're so smart bro!"_

 _Samson turned back around and started leading the way around the track again, "I gotta be Ash, I'm going to Beacon in a few years and they don't take in chumps. I have to be smart, and I have to be a good fighter. Otherwise those city kids will beat my head like a drum!"_

' _Beacon… I haven't really been giving it my all have I? I can't afford to play around when lives are in danger. Whether this world is a dream, a fantasy, or an alternate reality, I can't be slacking.'_

" _Hey bro…."_

" _Yeah?"_

" _Could you teach me how to fight with a shield? Like you do?"_

" _I thought you were learning how to fight with a hammer like dad?"_

" _Well yeah… but two handed hammers are slow… so if I use one hand, then have a shield in the other, I can be faster and more defensive right?"_

 _Samson stopped once more, this time Asher running into his back._

" _Uuf!"_

 _Samson turned his head to the side, looking at his little brother over his shoulder with a wide smile covering his face._

" _You're gonna make me cry little guy, you're too smart for your own good!"_

 _He turned back around but this time headed toward the center of the track picking up a heater shield from where it leaned against a tree stump/chair, and tossed it over to the younger boy still standing on the track. "Well! No time like the present! I'm gonna come at you with everything I've got so you just do what you can and I'll see where to teach you from there!"_

' _Uh oh'_

" _Hey bro, don't forget about us while you're at Beacon yeah?"_

 _Samson is now standing in front of a bullhead near the village a large bag over his shoulders, his long sword, Incognita, on his belt with his shield on his back. he , his brother, and his father are standing in front of the village gates, waiting for the pilot to get supplies and for the rest of the town to show up to wish Samson well._

" _Of course not! Who the hell do you think I am?"_

 _His crude language earned him a smack on the back of his head courtesy of their father, Agni. "watch your language boy, Your brother hasn't picked up all of your bad habits yet."_

 _Samson rubbed the sore spot on his head grumbling all the while, "Aw come on pops, I'm not that bad."_

 _Agni chuckled under his breath, "No I suppose you aren't." Agni was a monster of a man, standing at six feet five inches and built like a truck. His long hours working a forge leaving his face looking rod and blotchy, but the small beard helped to cover the worst of it, even if it was covered in ash and smelled of smoke, his hair on the other hand was a deep red, kept short so as to not catch any of the flames. "Remember to be thankful Samson, the whole village is coming to see you off, and to put our hopes with you. You're one of the lucky few every couple of years to get to go to a real huntsman academy."_

" _Yeah, I know. Thanks for putting up with me old man."_

" _Samson…."_

" _What's up little man?"_

" _You'll tell me about everything when you get back right? What it's like there?"_

 _Samson suddenly got a serious look in his eyes, and walked over to Asher towering over him, both of the boys had seemed to inherit their father's height and build, with Samson being taller simply because he was older. "I don't need to tell you about Beacon. Because one day, you're gonna go there too. Then you'll know. And we will be the huntsman brothers, travelling all over Remnant bringing peace to the people!"_

" _You know that's not what I mean…."_

 _Samson started to smile like his usual self again, " hehe I know, I just wanted to say one more inspirational speech for ya one last time! I know how you love them!"_

" _Come on bro…."_

 _Around the corner of the wall came their mother, Azar. she was a smaller woman only coming up to Five and a half feet. She had long brown hair flowing to her shoulder blades, she helped run the shop while her husband forged the weapons and tools for the village. " the others are on their way! Samson you have everything you'll need right? Did you pack your toothbrush? OhmylittleboyisonhiswaytoBeaconIcan'tbelieveitwhatifyouneedsomethingfromhomedowesenditinthemailarewesupposedtodeliverittoyou?ohIjustdon'tknowifIcansendyououtthere-"_

" _Azzy! He'll be fine. He's a grown man now and we can't keep him here forever. Even if we really want to…."_

' _Geez dad come on.'_

" _Anyway!" Samson cuts through the awkward air, "I wasn't expecting the whole town to show up to see me off, why is that?"_

 _Agni leans against the wooden wall, no small amount of pride on his face, "Well, considering you and your brother are the two strongest in our village besides me, I'd say they've grown rather fond of you."_

' _And he's not wrong, comparing me and Samson to the other 'guards' we outclass them in almost everything, dad is the only one still able to whip us around the yard in training'_

 _The rest of the village came around the corner finally and started to all chatter to each other_

" _How long is he gonna be gone?"_

" _This boy has great things in store!"_

" _He'll be the top of his class he will!"_

" _Not in smarts though…."_

 _Samson heard that last one and got an annoyed expression on his face, "Hey! I'm smart! I just… don't like showing off?"_

" _YEAH RIGHT!"_

" _It wasn't your fault Ash…."_

 _Asher is now alone in his room surrounded by his blueprints and work-in-progress, he is sitting on his bed staring into the blank space on the floor in front of him with an unreadable expression on his face._

" _You can't blame yourself for this, he knew the risks of being a huntsman when he went to the academy."_

" _We were supposed to be huntsmen together…." these were the first words Asher had spoken since the grimm raid, close to four days since._

" _I know son, I'm sorry it turned out this way."_

 _ **A smaller kinder soul, Ozpin? You never stood a chance if this is the best you could conjure you old fool.**_

 _The scene is now a hellscape, grimm run rampant over what was once a small village, where a family had their forge works._

 _ **But maybe, my own champions can take away what last shred of insignificant hope you have left.**_

 _And then a silhouette began to appear, growing in size every passing second. It was massive and cast a shadow so large it covered all of vale, and it roared a challenge into the night._

"Gaaghh!"

I lean forward in my bed, my head pounding out a rhythm with my heart.

"Jesus Christ what the hell was that…" I turn to look at my roommate, still soundly asleep in his bed. Our dorm covered in posters for games and movies with only the broken moon shining through the window for light.

That… couldn't have been… **her** , could it have? I didn't think I would be on her radar yet, and if I am, why isn't Lee as well?

 _Because you're coming of age_

Oh great what the hell does that mean voice? Also, do you have a name? It's kinda weird just calling you voice.

 _My power is slowly joining with you, all of your growing pains can be attributed to me. And yes I do have a name, Ancalagon. I believe one of your tales contained my name._

Wait… Ancalagon? I think I've heard that before but it's been a long time, I suppose twelve years is long enough to forget a lot of things. Ancalagon, Ancalagon, Ancala- WAIT, ANCALAGON THE BLACK? FROM LORD OF THE RINGS!?

 _Yes, I believe so, I recognized my name when I brought you over, it used to be your favorite series if I recall, and I was surprised that the humans remembered me. While you are all short lived, your abilities to tell stories are fascinating and rival those of a dragon._

Wait a fucking minute, is lord of the rings real?

 _Of course not, many of the figures in your fiction simply have a real world basis. Do you really think humans came up with dragons themselves, or hydra or that matter? Humans aren't nearly that imaginative._

I see, so then you're a dragon.

 _Obviously…._

Jesus, I have a dragon in my head.

 _Well, I see that you have much to think about. I leave you to it then._

Whoa, wait a second I still need to know _why_ you're in my head!

.

.

.

Of course, he's a real chatty Cathy when he wants to be, but when I start needing answers, _poof_ he's gone!

So… I have a dragon in my head huh? Sounds like a bad fan fiction….

But I guess I'll let that slide for now. I need to focus on what… (He?) was saying. I'm changing, and he called them growing pains. My whole body has been sore for the longest while, almost a few weeks at this point, thinking about it now, after the initiation so almost a month-ish. How long is this gonna be going on then I wonder? What's going to happen to me?

My headaches have only been getting worse, it's been a few days since my conversation with… Ancalagon, ( Jesus I can't believe he's real ) and my body is more sore than ever with splitting headaches joining them. I can barely focus sometimes my head hurts so much, and I have a feeling it's only gonna get worse.

"You alright?" we're seated at a table in the cafeteria, with RWBY and JNPR sitting with us, Lee's looking at me like I might break in half right in front of him. I haven't told anyone about what's been going on, I don't think even Lee would believe me at this point.

"Yeah… why?"

"You look tired man, like you haven't slept in days." Well he's not wrong, I haven't been sleeping right, between planning out the future and the migraines, it hasn't been a good time for my sleep schedule.

"M' fine don't worry about it."

"Speaking of fine, Jaune are you ok?" Oh, looks like it's time for that huh? Pyrrha is looking at Jaune like someone might look at a sad puppy, and Jaune is staring vacantly ahead until Ruby hits his shoulder to get his attention.

"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be?"

Ruby gets into their conversation with her own little observation, "It's just that you seem a little… not ok?" very observant, Rubes.

Jaune tries to defend himself from everyone's gaze, mine not included I can barely focus on eating as it is, I'm just listening. "Guys I'm fine, seriously look!" it's not very convincing though, and as he's talking I see something that sets me even further on edge. Winchester and his little gang picking on the rabbit eared faunus, Velvet Scarlatina. Just seeing it is making me angry enough to melt my fork in my hand, and it seems like Blake noticed that.

"Scuse' me." I get up from the table, leaving my ruined utensil behind, Lee makes a move to follow me but I gesture to him to sit back down, and continue walking toward the focus of my ire.

"Winchester, didn't Lee and I tell you we would be watching for this shit? I don't like being ignored."

 _It would be wise to remember the old professor's words and be more diplomatic don't you think?_

FUCK OFF, you don't talk to me for days after dropping a bomb and all of a sudden you expect me to just listen? No fuck that, I'm sick of being the same pushover I was on earth.

Cardin still has his stupid smirk, the one he wears when he thinks he's untouchable, looks like he doesn't remember how I wiped the floor with him. "Come on, it's just an animal!"

"Just an animal huh?" I'm standing in front of him now, is he smaller? Whatever.

"Yeah! I don't see why you care, being little better than an animal yourself, you freak." Ah, looks like he does remember, he must think I'm a freak because of my semblance or something, whatever I could give a shit what he thinks.

I grab him by the front of his shirt, his little cronies just standing there pissing themselves for all I care. "Listen here you waste of DNA, I don't care who you think you are, I don't care what you think, in fact I don't really care what anyone thinks about this. You. do not. Mess. With faunus. I will hurt you much worse than last time if I see this again. I'm done playing games Winchester." by the time I'm finished with my speech I've lifted him a few inches off the floor and held him up to the wall, his teammates not doing anything besides titter around like lost birds.

"W-whatever, just put me down freak!"

"I don't think you understood me…. I sai-"

"Uhm, e-excuse me, would you please put him down? I don't want you getting into trouble…." Now that's a familiar accent, I turn to look at eh rabbit girl I just defended, and she looks… scared?

"You want me to just let them get away with this stuff? They won't stop unless someone stops them you know this right?"

"I know, but they won't learn why what they're doing is wrong if you do this." damn, she's got a point. I look back at Winchester where I have him pinned against the wall, his feet dangling in the air. I suppose doing this doesn't help anyone except me huh? I wouldn't be any better than the fang. Fucking terrorists.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry." I let go of the bully and watch him scurry off with his cronies. He shouts some kind of threat over his shoulder but I'm not listening. I look at Velvet, and she's tiny. Smaller than I thought she would be really. Brown hair, bunny ears, and an accent that sounds suspiciously Australian.

"It's alright, thank you for helping, are you sure you aren't worried about them coming after you?"

I blew air through my nose at that, blowing out a fair amount of steam, "Them? Nah, they couldn't hurt me with two whole teams of themselves. I wouldn't worry about it."

"Oh, well um, if you say so. Thank you again."

"Don't worry about it, see ya later."

I turned around and walked back to finish my meal, my bad mood still hanging over my head, but nearly as bad as before. Helping Velvet made me feel a little better.

Lee decided that Asher was _not_ OK. His temper was the shortest he'd ever seen it, here or on earth, and he had a notorious anger problem. Plus, he looked taller than he was a few days ago, almost hitting the top of the door frame, which was almost _seven feet high_. So something was up. His best friend was acting strange, his body was changing, and he was just… angry, all the time. Lee was very concerned and decided to talk to someone who might have a good idea what was up, someone who had experience with moody friends and body changes. Blake! Although he wasn't sure how to approach her. She had kept her distance from him and Asher like they were the plague, and he wasn't even sure why! Honestly the whole debacle was giving him conniptions. He was walking to team RWBY's dorm after the long day, confident in his knowledge of the coming days, of Winchesters controlling of Jaune and the subsequent change in his self-esteem. Things were gonna be hitting the fan soon, and he and Asher were gonna be the ones to make sure everything went well for all involved. Besides the baddies of course! Fairly soon he made his way to the door of team Rwby and knocked, hoping someone was there.

"Who is it?" ah the heiress, time to turn on the charm Lee.

"It's Lee, I was hoping to talk to you guys about something… uh… well troublesome would be a good word for it."

Weiss cracked open the door, looking around for some reason. And let him inside where the rest of her team were either relaxing or doing schoolwork, the former more than the latter in the case of the two sisters. Lee wasn't too surprised by their habits.

"Thanks, I'm worried about Ash and was hoping you guys would have some advice."

"What's wrong with Asher? Is he sick? Or dying?! *gasp* what if he's sick _and_ dying!?"

"I'm sure it's nothing like that Rubes." well there go the sisters.

Lee chuckles a bit, amused at their antics and continues where he left off, "nah he's none of those, least I don't think so. He's just been… not Asher really. His temper is the worst I've ever seen, and he's… well it's like he's getting bigger. He's stronger in sparring and he's taller than he was, his body is bulking up and I almost never see him work out more than he usually does. I'm just not sure what's going on."

Weiss seemed uninterested, that may because Ash has left a… less than optimal impression on her. She was back sitting at her desk, going over her notes and books for class, "Have you tried simply, talking to him?"

"Usually even when his temper is lower than this, he doesn't have a lot of patience for talking. And getting him to acknowledge his problems? Fat chance."

Yang decided to chime in with her two bits, "what if you guys just had a detox day? You know, just let the stress out with some activities. Don't know what to tell you about the body changes. drugs?"

"Whoa! Asher hates drugs with a passion! Says it goes against his _moral code_ or something like that. And activities? What are you suggesting, bowling? No, I'm just worried. He doesn't talk much and he's kinda anti-social. Really I'm surprised he and Jaune became such fast friends it usually takes him a few months to make a friend."

"Hey! What about us?" Ruby interjected, a pout on her face. " I've been his friend just as long as Jaune has!"

"Again, surprised the hell outta me." Lee couldn't help but smile. Everything he said had been true, on earth Asher, or as he was known then Nathan, was antisocial to the highest degree. He could know someone for years and never once consider them anything more than acquaintance, even if the other person saw them as best friends and they were together all the time. "I guess you must have left an impression on him then. Besides Weiss of course, I'm not sure you two will ever get along."

"Hey! I'll have you know I've been cordial every time I have spoken to Asher! Why I've even invited him to study sessions!"

"Ha! Asher studying, that'll be the day!" Lee chuckled to himself, the conversation had been derailed a bit, and the person he had wanted to ask in the first place had been as quiet as a churchmouse. Ironic really. "Blake? Any thoughts on Asher?"

"Let him work through what he needs to." huh. Well that was simple enough.

"What do you mean?"

Blake closed her book and looked at lee with her trademark blank face, "What I mean is this, let Asher work through his problems. If he's like you say then you can't really help him right now. Just be there for him and be a good friend. He'll figure it out eventually."

"Hmmm, I guess. I just don't like doing nothing."

"Well, doing nothing is my suggestion."

Lee heaves out a sigh, not fully satisfied with the answers the team gave him, but willing to give that last one a try. Weiss looks up from her desk area and looks at Lee with a critical gaze and turns back to her work, she can understand wanting to be left alone, but the problem with that is you get exactly what you want. To be alone.

"Well… thanks for the advice girls. I guess I'll just let him be for now." Lee wasn't happy with his final decision, but he guessed it would be the best. He left the room after saying bye to Rwby, and went back to his own room. Asher was already back, sleeping at his desk with his head on a book, surrounded by notes of things to come, and the more mundane notes of classes. Lee smiled at his friend, hoping he would start to feel better soon, then went to bed.

I have decided that I am _not_ feeling better. My entire body is sore, I'm tired as hell, and my head feels like an anvil taking a beating. But I couldn't go around feeling sorry for myself, sadly I have classes and planning to do.

 _Perhaps a day of rest would not be a bad idea_

Shut up.

Lee and I make it to Ooblecks class after breakfast with the usual gang, Weiss was staring at me the whole time which was weird, but I didn't say anything. She's probably still mad about the whole "heiress" thing I called her out on.

Oobleck was zipping around the room, normally I would ask how he's doing it as I can't even track him, but I'm just gonna let it slide for now.

"Yes! Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights revolution-more popularly known as the Faunus War humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population in Menagerie" he points to where Menagerie is on the map, that tiny island where the faunus are suffocating in numbers. "Now! While this must feel like ancient history to many of you, it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why, the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!" you got that right Oobleck, "Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

A few of the kids raise their hands, I don't even need to look to know Velvet is raising her hand, what's she doing in our class anyways? "Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence! I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorize to be the turning point in the third year of the War?" Weiss raises her hand next to me, for some reason she's been sticking about as close as Lee, which is doubly weird. I didn't think she and I got along. "Yes?"

Weiss looks happy that she was called on, and even happier she has the answer, "The battle at Fort Castle!" Isn't that a bit derivative?

"Precisely! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?"

Cardin shoots his little ball at Jaune, and I let it go past me. I can't say I don't feel bad for letting this happen but it has to, to make Jaune the leader he was meant to be.

Jaune let's out an indignant "Hey!", looking around for whatever hit him

Oobleck zooms over to Jaunes desk, leaning over into his face, "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?" I think he knows Jaune wasn't paying attention, and this is him trying to have Jaune realize that he needs to learn.

"Uhhhh…" come on buddy, "The answer... The advantage... that the Faunus..."oh lordy, Pyrrha you aren't being as stealthy as you think, "...had over that guy's stuff...Uhh... Binoculars!"

Well, points for effort in my book. The whole class starts to burst into laughter except for Jaunes friends, and the laughter is not helping my headache.

Oobleck zips back to his desk, an almost disappointed expression on his face, "Very funny, Mr. Arc! Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject!"

The smug bastard sits back in his chair, putting his feet on the table,"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier." I can feel the hardwood of the desk starting to crack in my hands. This piece of shit really knows how to push my buttons, I knew it was coming, but the amount of smugness in his tone just makes it worse. I grit my teeth, not wanting to get out of my desk, and crack cardin across the face with it.

"You aren't the most open minded of individuals are you cardin?" let him have it Pyrrha.

"What? You got a problem?"

"No, I have the answer! It's night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark."

Blake decides to toss in her two bits as well, getting another dig at Cardin,"General Lagune was inexperienced, and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the general was captured. Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Cardin jumps out of his seat, looking ready to throw a punch. And I'm not one to sit down in a fight. I get out of my seat nearly as soon as cardin, but Oobleck stops us both from escalating any further, "Mr. Winchester, mr. Ryut! Please take your seats. You two and Mr. Arc can all see me after class for additional readings, and a talking to in proper classroom etiquette."

"Oohhhh..." it's not that bad Jaune.

"Now! Moving on!"

"I'm very disappointed with all three of you! Mr. Arc and Mr. Winchester, both of you have been slacking in my class. Your readings and essays are both sub-par, and I will not stand for it! Mr. Ryut, your temperament has been less than satisfactory as well, for the past two weeks you have been aggressive and downright confrontational. All of you! Beacon only accepts the best of the best, and it's about time you all acted like as such! All of you now owe me an essay over pages fifty-one to ninety-one! And Mr. Ryut, in accordance to your behaviour I'm assigning you detention with Professor Port. perhaps he will help you put you energies into a less, detrimental form." Well, I like Port, so that's not too bad.

We all leave the classroom after Oobleck dismisses us, oddly enough with him leaving first. Jaune gets through the door and I see Cardin getting ready to bump into him, I intercede and get in the way between the two. Forcing Cardin behind me while we all leave. I can hear the shit scoff at us, but he doesn't try anything with me right there. Jaune and I then go off to the side to talk to Pyrrha.

 _Perhaps it would be best to leave them to themselves, I believe it is time for us to hold a_ _ **discussion**_.

Goddamnit. Fine, but only cause I want answers.

"Hey, I'm gonna go take care of something. Will you two be ok?"

Jaune looks over at me, like a scared kitten, but Pyrrha on the other hand looks happy to be alone with him. About what I expected then. "You'll be fine Jaune." weird, he doesn't look put at ease, more like he looks… sullen? Ah, he'll work it out.

I leave them to talk through things, while I head to the cliff side, where I had talked to Port all that time ago. I figured someplace secluded would be best for this. I take a seat on the edge of the cliff, my legs hanging out over the air, my only feeling is the wind, and the constant soreness and headaches that have been with me the past week or so.

 _I can provide an explanation for that. Though I doubt you will like it._

Well, get talking. I'm about damn done with all of this mystery crap.

 _That's part of it. I believe your rising temper is my fault, along with the change in your previous personality, although it should all return to how it was, with minor changes, when all is said and done._

What does that mean? You need to start explaining this shit you-

 _If you would stop interrupting me then I could tell you._

.

.

.

 _Thank you. Now, the reason for the soreness, the headaches , and the temper can all, sadly, be attributed to me. Your body is changing to accommodate my presence._

Well that's not ominous.

 _What did I just say about interrupting me? Anyway, the faunus you know, they are a byproduct. They were made so that others like us-_

It's us now is it?

 _ **Silence**_ _. And yes,_ _ **us**_ _, because like it or not, we are one being now. You will change, your body has been changing, and I will try to limit the changes to your personality. But you must understand, I don't have as much control as I would like. You will become short tempered, prideful, and above all else, protective. These are the greatest traits in dragons, and I was the greatest of all of them. I will try to help as much as I can, but eventually, I will fade. And we will truly become one being, with you at the lead. I am here to train, and to teach. I am sorry to have held this information for so long._

So… jesus, you're telling me I'm gonna become a faunus?

 _In the loosest of terms yes. But you will not be like them._

Fuck. FUCK. ok, I need to tell Lee.

 _That is unnecessary and I would advise against it._

Why the fuck would I not tell my best friend!?

 _Because he will soon be experiencing the same thing._

You mean-

 _Yes, he is one of us. Though not the same. There is no other dragon faunus, just as there is no other of what he is._

Well, do you know what he is?

 _As of now I would guess the Raijin, the thunderbeast of japanese gods._

Jesus, this is not how I thought all of this would be going.

 _I'm not sure what you were expecting, I have lived with you through all of this time, since you were brought to this world. Did you really think your semblance was_ _ **just**_ _fire? You have not even touched the least of my abilities. In time, you will grow to be powerful. With my last host, I was the fourth most powerful being on Remnant. With you, I see us surpassing this._

Ok, one bomb at a time man.

 _Please refer to me as my name demands._

Then I say the same to you Ancalagon. I'm gonna need to think of a nickname for you that's too long.

 _If you wish, you may call me Gon._

Right. Sure, but are you sure I shouldn't even just , you know, _warn_ Lee?

 _I think not, every one of our kind must learn on their own, otherwise they will be considered weak._

If you say so I guess. Well, thanks for telling me. I think I need to sleep now.

 _Yes, by my calculations, you will be done with the transformation in a week or so. You will be bigger, stronger, and faster, along with a few physical changes._

Explain?

 _No, where's the fun in that?_

Shithead.

 **A/N HOLY SHIT, I'm very sorry this is so late. I don't have a good excuse besides exams and homework. Hopefully this amount of delay won't become normal. I had a rough time writing this, mostly because I was unsure of myself since there's kinda been a lack of activity for this story in regards to reviews and visitors. But I'll keep posting even if only one person wants to read this, and really, I just like writing. So! R &R, Pm me if you want to have an OC make an appearance, and overall, have a blessed day! Happy late thanksgiving, and happy early christmas!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Things had been rough for Jaune. He had let out his feelings of inadequacy to Pyrrha, told her about his fake transcripts, pushed her away for wanting to help, and was then blackmailed by Cardin for the transcripts. He hasn't even been able to talk to Asher about everything since Cardin told him not to. In fact, it's been one bit of bad news after another. He hasn't been able to train, since he's been doing Cardins work along with his own, and he's been lonely, since he can't talk to any of his friends about what's been happening. He had just gotten back from another long day of working for Cardin, bone tired from everything he had to do for the bully. He was finally getting back after the days work, and cracked open the door to hear his team talking about him.

"How come Jaune gets home so late?" ah there's Nora, the crazy valkyrie. She and Ren spend a lot of time together, for not being together together.

"He's become rather scarce since fraternising with Cardin." and there's ren, the quiet boy that Jaune could count on to have an idea.

"I'm sure our leader knows exactly what he's doing." that one hurt. Pyrrha had been his closest friend besides Asher since he got here. She saved him in the emerald forest and even unlocked his aura, it felt bad to let her down.

"Hmmmm… I guess so." hanging his head in shame Jaune closed the door quietly, and sank down to the floor, wallowing in his self pity.

Hey, Jaune!" Jaune jumps a bit on the ground, looking for the cheery voice, and finding Ruby Rose in her pajamas standing over him, "Long time, no see! Did you lock yourself out again?"

"Oh, uh, nope! Got it here! hehe…."

Ruby takes a seat next to him, seemingly settling in for a long conversation. "So! Where have you been lately?"

Sheepishly jaune starts to scramble for an answer, "I, uh…"he heaves out a sigh, why even lie to her? " I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have, and now Cardin has me on a leash, and Pyrrha won't even talk to me, and… I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea. I'm a failure."

"Nope!"

Looking surprised at her rebuttal, he looks over at the red reaper, and doesn't see pity or anything he was expecting. "'Nope?'"

"Nope! You're a leader now, Jaune. You're not allowed to be a failure."

Laughable logic aside, whatchu talkin bout girl? "But... what if I'm a failure at being a leader?"

Ruby seems to think on this one for just a few seconds, then responds with, "Nope!"

Jaune gives out a laugh, if nothing else this whole situation is kinda funny, "You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff."

"Nope!" Here, she really seems to think about what she's going to say next, and out of the mouths of babes flows wisdom, "Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid..." a groan from Jaune, "... and you might've even been a failure the first day we met!" another groan, this time, Jaune sinks into himself, "But, you can't be one now. You know why?"

"Uhhh, because...?"

"Because it's not just about you anymore. You've got a team now, Jaune. We both do! And if we fail, then we'll just be bringing them down with us. We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second. Your team deserves a great leader, Jaune. And I think that can be you. Have a good night, Jaune!" Ruby gets up, and starts to head inside of her dorm room, before turning back and telling Jaune one last thing, "You know, Asher's been kinda distant, almost as much as you. I think he would like it if you talk to him about this. He's kinda smart."

Jaune shakes his head, he had noticed Asher's behaviour too, but had been too focused on himself to do anything. "Ha, alright Ruby. I'll talk to him when I get the chance."

With new energy, Jaune pushes himself off the ground and faces the door, ready to turn the knob and face his team, but his Scroll beeps and he pulls it off of his side to open it, seeing Cardin's contact relaying a message.

"Hey! It's your buddy Cardin! I know you're probably busy with that Dust project I gave you, buuuut I'm gonna need you to go out and get me a bag of Rapier make sure they've got some really big stingers! It's important, so don't screw this up!"

Jaune groans about the fact that he has more work to do before he can get to sleep, or even talk to his team, but with what Cardin has on him what can he do? Jaune turns around, and heads to where he must.

 **Xx(A/N I hate it but I have to do this since FFN won't recognise lines…)xX**

The flight to Forever Fall was quiet. The only conversation on board was between Nora and ren, which was about whether or not Nora was allowed to eat the sap they were going to get. Oddly enough, she was not allowed to eat the sap, but that wouldn't stop her from trying. Asher and Lee were sitting in a corner of the ship they were in, both seeming to try and get a nap on the flight with little success. Meanwhile RWBY were all sitting together either looking outside or, in the case of Weiss, alternatively looking at notes of classes, and taking peeks at a certain smithy. Weird. CRDL on the other hand… well… Jaune didn't want to think about them, or even look at them.

Forever Fall was beautiful. Like a constant… well… fall? Jaune was never good with descriptions. But the sight out of the ship was amazing, enough to take the breath out of anyone looking out the windows.

When they landed all of the students calmly walked out of the ship… except for Nora, who, oddly enough, seemed like she was floating out. They continued walking through the forest going even further into the dense woodlands. Everyone was ogling the trees around them, enraptured by the natural beauty.

"Yes, students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so." Die?! But Jaune was too young to die! He still had his whole life in front of him and-

"Oof!" ah that would be Cardin's back, the bully looked back at jaune with a burning gaze, as if daring him to try something like that again. Jaune decided the best rebuttal would be nonchalant whistling.

"Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at 4 o'clock. Have fun!" oh yes, fun. Forget the promise of quick death if you wandered off. Jaune tries to use the quiet moment after the announcement to try and sneak over to his friends, hoping to spend at least some time with them. But that hope is dashed to pieces when Cardin grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"Come on, buddy. Let's go!" Damnit! Jaune just wanted to be with his friends, was that too much to ask for? According to Cardin, yes! Jaune looks miserably over at his team, matching gazes with Pyrrha before hanging his head in shame. He then looks over at Asher who is giving him the stare-down of a lifetime. Jaune breaks eye contact with his first friend, who shakes his head at Jaune. But unseen to jaune, there's a trace of a grin on his face. Jaune had just hit the turning point of his destiny.

 **(again I hate to do this, sorry, until I figure out this hellsite)**

Jaune returned to the clearing CRDL was resting in, after their not so hard hard days work. He collapsed on the ground, dizzy from collecting all the sap, which he thinks he might be allergic to. Cardin moves forward near Jaune, on the ground, and looking down on him with a smirk on his face.  
"Hey, great work, Jauney boy! Now that wasn't too hard, was it?"  
"I think I'm allergic to this stuff..."  
Cardin's smirk grows ever wider the more he talks, "Greeeeat, great, great. So, Jaune, I bet you're asking yourself, 'Why did my buddy Cardin ask me to collect six jars of tree sap when there's only five of us?'"  
Jaune is still on the ground, but finds enough energy in his body to give a weak nod, "That is one of the many questions I have asked myself today, yes."  
Jaune gets up from his position on the ground, coming to a sitting position, all the while Cardin keeps talking."Well, come with me, and you'll find out."  
Jaune gives a weak moan, but still picks himself up off the ground to follow his blackmailer.  
They make their way back to the others, or at least, near them. CRDL and Jaune look overa crest of a hill, watching the other students gathering the bounty of the forest. But it seems that someone holds Cardins singular attention, someone who has stood up to him consistently and been a royal pain in his ass since the first days of classes.

Jaune turns to look at Cardin, worried about why they are there. "Cardin, wh-what's going on?"  
"Payback." the object of Cardins desire for vengeance is lying under a tree, his teammate talking to jaunes teammates, creating a distraction for Nora to do her dirty deeds, and devour the sap they worked so hard to get. Cardin's target, meanwhile, seems to be sleeping.  
This was the first time in a long while Jaune had seen his friend look so at peace, "Asher...? Wh-what are you-?"  
Cardin pounds his fist into the ground, "That's the bastard. Damn animal-lover… he's humiliated us too many times. Alright, boys..." here, he pulls out a box with a "w" on the top, "Last night, old Jaune here managed to round up an entire box of Rapier Wasps, and now, we're gonna put him to work."  
Russell roughly grabs Jaune by the shoulders, either to steady him, or make sure he doesn't try to run. Although since they're all still on the ground, the gesture is more than likely meant to intimidate Jaune more than anything  
"Now, according to one of the essays you wrote for me last week, these nasty things loooove sweets." Cardin turns to look at Asher, still napping under the tree with sunlight crossing his face. "And I think it's time we taught this animal lover what happens to people who cross us.  
The members of CRDL get up. Cardin offers his hand to Jaune, only to painfully yank him up on his feet and shove the jar into his grasp.  
"And Jaune here is gonna do it."  
Jaune looked at Cardin in confusion, "Do what?"  
"Hit him with the sap!" He leans in close to Jaune's face, sneering all the while, "Either that, or I'll have a chat with Goodwitch, and you'll be on the first airship out of Beacon."  
Jaune looks down at the sap in his hands, thinking about how he got there. He had joined Beacon to prove something to himself, that he was not useless, he was not a damsel in could be a hero! And the first person to believe in him had been Asher.

 _"I believe you'll do better than me someday."_

 _"You really think that?"_

 _"Absolutely, and never doubt it."_

Asher believed in him. Pyrrha believed in him. His friends were counting on him.  
"No."  
Cardin was shocked, this weak little coward was telling him no?"What did you say?"  
Jaune put more force into his voice this time, steeling himself for what was about to come. "I said... NO!"  
He turns and throws the jar at Cardin, instantly recoiling his hands to himself as he looks at Cardin's breastplate covered in sap. The other team leader, however, just looks at himself and laughs darkly. "Oh, you've done it now..."  
Jaune laughs to himself again, this time with real humor. He had just stood up to Cardin! He was never going to be afraid of someone like him again.

 **WHAM**

Well that wouldn't stop him from getting punched by the bully.

"You know that wasn't very smart, Jauney boy." Jaune feels Cardin grabbing him by the front of his shirt, lifting him up for a beatdown, "I'm gonna make sure they send you back to mommy in teeny tiny pieces."  
Jaune could barely move, just getting hit that one time hurt a lot, but he couldn't just sit back and do nothing, his pride wouldn't let him."I don't care what you do to me..." with his remaining strength Juane lifted his head so he could look Cardin in the eye. "... but you are not messing with my friends."  
Cardin feels momentary shock, but then sees a moment to hurt Jaune in a more meaningful way, "What? You think talk like that makes you tough? You think you're a big strong man now? You know he's not really your friend right? Someone like him, I've seen it a dozen times before. You're nothing to him. You're a tool for him to use, to make him seem compassionate."  
Jaune feels like he's been slapped in the face, Asher isn't his friend? That's nonsense. Asher has been his friend since he first got to Beacon. Hsi first real friend who wasn't his family. And Cardin says he's using him? No, he wouldn't, Asher is his friend! And damned if he would ever doubt someone who has faith in him!

"You're wrong! Asher believes in me, and he's been my friend since day one! And I won't let you slander him!" Jaune was then hit, in the face, really hard. He thinks Cardin may have punched him.

"You little shit, let's see how much of a man you really are then." Jaune was on the ground now, holding himself up by the elbows. Cardin reached for his shirt again, his other hand rearing back to punch him once more, the rest of his team watching form the side, making sure no one interrupted them. But as Cardin was reaching a bright light broke through the clearing, blinding everyone there for a few seconds. And when they opened their eyes Jaune was standing in front of them, looking as if he had not been punched twice in the face, with no bruises to speak of. Cardin on the other hand, was nursing his right arm, the arm that had been reaching for Jaune. It felt to him as if he had been burnt.

"You bastard! What did you just do?!"

Jaune looked down at his hands confused over what just happened. He felt fantastic! Better than he had in awhile, any aches and pains he had from working all day yesterday and most of today were gone, leaving him feeling refreshed. "I-I don't know."

Cardin starts to growl under his breath, "Grab him." the rest of his team moves forward, Sky and Dove grabbing Jaune by his shoulders and holding him roughly as Cardin gets ready to whale on him for all the disrespect he's had to suffer today.

 **GRRRRRRR**

What was that?

Dove and Sky were looking behind him at something, something really big from the position of their heads.

"That's a big Ursa…." oh… shit…. Cardin turned around to look behind him, and saw the biggest Ursa he had ever seen. Honestly, it was a crime for something to be that big! The Ursa started to stomp its way across the clearing, clearly headed toward Cardin, who looked down t his chest, that was covered in sweet, and fragrant, sap.

"Shit."

The ursa roared out a challenge, seemingly rearing itself up to attack. All of team CRDL wsa scared, anyone with eyes could see it. That wasn't to say that Jaune wasn't scared too though. Russel, Dove, and Sky all ran away, leaving Jaune and Cardin to fend for themselves. Cardin roared at his teammates, angry that they would leave him, and angry at himself for not having the willpower to move with them, "Cowards, come back!" The Ursa was already bounding across the clearing, with each step the earth shook a little. Cardin tried to steady himself, holding his mace in a two handed grip. But the grimm beast merly smacked the weapon out of his hands, leaving him defenseless for its next attack, which smacked him across the face, throwing him into a tree not too far from Jaune.

Jaune the whole time this was going on, was having a battle of will inside himself.

 _We should run! With cardin distracting it we could make it back to our friends and he wouldn't ever bother us anymore!_

 ** _That's not right, if we leave him here we're no better than him!_**

 _Exactly! He would do it to us! Now let's leave and we never have to see him again!_

 ** _This isn't what a huntsman would do._**

 _Damn the huntsmen! I just want to live!_

 ** _The whole point of coming to this school was to train, to save people. Have we done either of those yet. Now is the time for a decision._**

 _Survive!_

 ** _Live._**

Jaune looked around him dueling with his thoughts, thinking over what to do when he saw him. Asher was watching from the treeline. How did he get over there so fast? His gaze was intense, as if he knew exactly what Jaune was thinking, and his whole body was exuding a powerful aura, something that felt like it couldn't be challenged. But there wasn't only Asher, there was something behind him, something even more dangerous than the grimm, but for some reason Jaune knew he was in no danger. The other presence was lurking in the dark, but Jaune could see its eyes, they were appraising him, measuring him up. He looked even further, and saw his team, standing at the front was Pyrrha, holding out her hand as if to help him up, a smile on her face. Behind her were Ren and Nora, Ren giving him a thumbs up, and Nora cheering him on in her own boisterous way. Then further behind was team RWBY, all of them, except maybe Weiss, were cheering him on. He felt his heart swell, his friends were here and he wouldn't let them down.

Jaune charged the grimm monster, hitting it with his shield like he had seen Asher do, then he went for a side swipe with his sword. The beast recoiled from his shield blow, but avoided the sword, and reared a paw back to take a swipe at him. He ducked under the claw, swinging his sword upward trying to cut the offending limb, but only managed to scratch it, but the damage was done. The ursa roared in anger at the tiny man-thing daring to challenge it this way and threw its whole mass at him, but out of nowhere seemingly of its own accord, Jaune's shield lifted itself up, holding back the monstrous beast. Jaune exerted his strength holding the Ursa up entirely with his shield, then his sword began to move, trusting it was his instincts, he followed through with the attack it was leading him to, cutting off the head of the bear like creature in one swing, Jaune roaring in defiance all the while. As the grimm fell and began to dissolve, Jaune looked to where he saw his friends earlier, wanting to thank them for the support. But where he saw them earlier in their places were trees. Any trace of their presence long gone, or perhaps, never there in the first place?

Jaune turned to look at Cardin, who was still sitting on the ground leaning on a tree after being hit there by the Ursa. Jaune put his hand out, willing to pick up the bully, who gladly accepted the gesture. Jaune lifted him up with relative ease, his confidence adding to his newfound strength. Jaune pulled Cardin in closer though, closer than either would have preferred but one of them had a point to make. "You leave me and my friends alone."

Cardin numbly nodded his head, only a little scared that Jaune was able to handily beat the beast, when he had been knocked around. "Right…."

The two started to head back to the others, running into Goodwitch on the way, and her followed by Asher, calmly walking along the path without a care in the world. The long suffering frown on his face replaced with a small, knowing, smirk. He quickly moved beside Jaune, almost half a foot taller now, which was odd since when term began they were the same height almost, he looked at his friend and nudged him with his shoulder, "so what happened? Heard there was an ursa." and so Jaune regaled his tale to his friend. They talked all the way back to the airship, meeting their friends and teammates back at the ship. Pyrrha was there… Jaune had some talking he needed to do tonight.

 **A/N Heyo! So to make up for the super late update I did the other day, here's the next part. Please don't hate me….**

 **Anyway! So yeah, things are going good. Schools good, writings fun, finals are coming, OH JESUS FINALS ARE COMING**

 **I'm fine. Expect more of this over winter break,Although the week of christmas I will be taking a break from writing to hang out with family and friends for the holidays**

 **So again! R &R pm me if you have any suggestion, question, or OC's you think you want to make an appearance! I'm taking at the least four for Vytal, to make it a little more fun for you readers! Just a general description, some personality, and their weapons! Have a blessed day and happy holidays!**


	9. Apology

hey there. Sorry to post it like this and I'm not eve sure if this is acceptable, this is the only way I could think of getting it out there. I'm dropping this story as of right now, or at least, putting it on a hiatus. I stopped writing about halfway through my previous semester of college as I was having some problems that I won't get into here. To make a long story short, I had some mental problems and some not mental problems, and they ended up in me leaving college for mental health reasons. I'm really sorry to do this to anyone who liked this story, and I will promise this isn't the last you'll see of it. I fully intend on returning and rewriting this story as I liked the plotlines I had planned. But for now, I'm gonna put this off to the side and work on some other things, if those don't attract any attention then I'll return to this story and work it from the ground up. I only want to put out my very best, and I feel like this wasn't it. Once again, I apologize for this, but I promise, I'm not done.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see y'all soon.

Civilscroll


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